Je ne veux pas oublier

Breakfast - my hated enemy

2011-08-09T08:33:00.001-07:00

I have an oft-mocked aversion to breakfast foods. I also have to be at work at 7:45am, and I am not supposed to eat anything until an hour after I take my first medicina of the day. This means I almost never eat breakfast at home, and rarely at work. If I do eat at work, it's usually not breakfast food, but rather leftovers (I love to have curry for breakfast) or whatever frozen meal I happen to have handy.

HOWEVER. Whole grains are important to the goals I am trying to achieve, and breakfast is a really easy time to work them in. Or so I thought, until I inspected every cereal option at Trader Joe's and failed to find a single one that didn't have added sugar. I was looking for muesli, which I used to eat all the time in France, with fruity yogurt. There were times when I ate it three times a day. It's also recommended by Summer Tomato, which made me feel really smart about my breakfast choices for about three seconds until I realized I haven't eaten muesli since 2008. I wanted plain muesli, maybe with some dried fruit in it but what I was really hoping for was muesli with nuts and no added sugar. I would have settled for plain granola. I found neither.

Perhaps my particular Trader Joe's just happened to be out of regular old muesli. The closest I found was this "blueberry" muesli, which seemed fine until closer inspection of the ingredients revealed that there are not actually any blueberries in this cereal, but rather dried cranberries flavored to taste like blueberries. This isn't that big of a deal, but I am really aiming for simplicity here, and duplicitous Trojan cranberries are not included in my plan. So instead, I opted for Trader Joe's Lowfat Granola with Almonds. Unfortunately it still contains cornstarch, which is gross, but the sweetening seems to come from brown rice and barley malt syrup. And natural flavors... what does that ever mean?? With 15g of sugar per .75 cup, I could definitely do better, but better to eat some breakfast than no breakfast, I say. So I got that and some lowfat plain yogurt as well as two fuji apples (um, delish).

This morning, as usual, I did not eat breakfast before work. I brought all the ingredients with me and put them in the staff fridge. Unbeknownst to me, the staff lounge was being used from 9:30 to 11 for a meeting, so when I decided it was time for breakfast, I was wrong. I waited til eleven and then went in to make my healthy and possibly gross breakfast.

Usually the staff lounge has some paper bowls lying around, but not today! No no no. So I scrounged around until I found something that was probably used to house hummus at some point but had since been washed and put in a cabinet. I added about as much granola as I could and then put plain yogurt on it. This is tricky for me, as I loathe soggy food, especially bread, and I am sure this will come up at some point because I am known for it and take a lot of teasing about it. Anyway, I cringed as I put the yogurt on the granola but really, I knew it would be okay from having eaten similar meals in Paris. Then I attempted to cut up a bit of the apple with a plastic knife, using a paper plate as a cutting board, because, well, I am rather dumb. I ended up tearing bits of the apple apart with my bare hands, exhibiting a display of brute force that I am sure seriously intimidated the people leaving the meeting. Then I smushed everything together, put the hummus/granola container on the paper plate/cutting board, put the apple next to it, and went back to my office to eat it! Hooray!!!!

It's already 11:15 at this point.

If this looks gross to you, I beg you to attribute that to my cell phone photo and fluorescent lighting. It was REALLY GOOD. In France, I always bought fruity yogurt to put in my muesli because I thought plain yogurt would be boring and not taste like anything. I was totally wrong. Turns out that the tasty bit in yogurt is actually yogurt. Who knew?

Things I have learned:

-Plain yogurt is tasty

-Fuji apples are tasty

-Bring a knife to work? Hmm.

-Buy some bowls and bring them to work as well.

-Check the staff lounge calendar (read: the e-mail that Jan S-F faithfully sends out every week and that is much appreciated by myself and many others)

And now for something completely different!

2011-08-08T16:34:00.000-07:00

So. Um. Sorry I haven't called. It's nothing personal, there's just someone else in my life right now, and that someone is... actually a bunch of things, and those things are not worth going into, so I won't.

I would, however, like to tentatively announce my RETURN TO BLOGGING. This is motivated in large part by my fear that I won't actually stick to a routine unless everyone I know is holding me accountable.

I have been concerned about my health a bit lately, and have been informed by a few doctors that losing weight will help some of my problems. More importantly, if I succeed in losing weight I don't have to buy new pants, and that money can then instead be spent on frozen margaritas.

So I am going to be FOOD BLOGGING! Well, food and exercise and general wellbeing blogging. I know next to nothing on this subject, but that has never stopped me before.

Being me, I really wanted to come up with a cool name for food blogging, but unfortunately the obvious portmanteaux are taken. I will not be calling this phase if my blog "Flog!" or "Blood!" as neither of those make me want to eat anything at all.

As I said, I have no FLIPPING idea what I am doing. I bought a gym membership that I haven't used yet, so that part is not going very well. But even if I can convince myself that I don't have time for the gym, eating is still a key part of not dying. After conversations with some friends, I decided to change my eating habits instead of just eating whatever I want and then (theoretically) working it off. Upon the recommendation of one such friend, I checked out the Summer Tomato website, which I promptly became obsessed with, and you should do the same. Based upon recommendations from Summer Tomato, I bought the book Eat, Drink and Be Healthy, published by Harvard Medical School. It has sixty recipes, and just you wait, because we shall be trying them together.

Although the book arrived today, I was not expecting it until tomorrow, so I was looking on Summer Tomato for an easy recipe to make tonight, since it's me, and I have zero patience. Must start eating healthy NOW! I found the perfect recipe on Summer Tomato for a meal made entirely of ingredients that can be found at Trader Joe's. Since Trader Joe's is the closest grocery store to me, I pounced on this recipe and spent the rest of the day blissfully dreaming about how cool and healthy I'll be.

The recipe, called "Warm Sausage Salad à la Trader Joe’s" can be found here.

A bit after I left work on a joyful mission to change the world one vegetable at a time, it started downpouring. Generally, I love the rain, but for those of you who are unaware, this is my ride:

I alos just moved from what was a 5-minute drive to work to what is a 20-minute drive, and that can double at rush hour. So basically it's sheeting down, smacking me in the chest as I go 30 miles per hour in a t-shirt, and overall making me a little less optimistic about my evening. But if there weren't adventures, it would be interesting! In the end I made it to Trader Joe's, soaked and shivering, and purchased my ingredients, glad that there was going to be some warmth involved in the meal I was making. Quite a bit of warmth, actually, but we'll get to that later.

My ingredients:

From Summer Tomato:

2 Trader Joe’s cooked sausages (any flavor): I chose jalapeño chicken sausage because, really, how could I not?
1 bag of salad greens: As suggested in Darya Pino's recipe, I got the herb salad mix, which was a really amazing choice. It has SO MANY THINGS IN IT. The highlights for me were the dill, cilantro and parsley. I will be getting this salad mix again - It's good on its own.
1 small (or 1/2 medium) sweet onion: Being onion-obsessed, I used a whole medium onion. I really want someone to discover that onions are wildly excellent for you and that because I adore them so much I will be better than everyone else.
1 small red bell pepper (optional): Done.
6-8 brown crimini mushrooms: I couldn't find crimini mushrooms, nor do I have the faintest idea what they are or what might resemble them, so I got shiitake mushrooms because I have never used them before and it's an adventure!
1 small avocado: I think eating avocado is like eating straight butter, so I skipped it.
2 Persian or Japanese (small) cucumbers: I found the Persian ones. I would not have known to look for these. They are AWESOME.
Good quality olive oil: Filippo Berio - free at CVS because I had coupons.
Good quality vinegar: I bought a huge jug of TJ's balsamic because balsamic vinegar is just splendid.
Salt and pepper: Simple, right? WRONG. Turns out Trader Joe's has umami-flavored smoked sea salt. I had to get it, despite the fact that linguistically it's nagging at the back of my head that something can't be umami-flavored. That's like saying it's sweet-flavored. Flavor of sweet. Nom nom nom.

I also added cherry tomatoes, which ended up kind of flavorless, and corn, which ended up kind of awesome.

The rest of the recipe pretty much went as planned. Sort of. Mostly. A little.

Slice onion and bell pepper into slivers about 1 inch long. Clean mushrooms and slice into desired thickness. Dice the cucumber and avocado. Cut sausages into thin slices. - This part is easy! Hooray! Except that I have cheap knives, a tiny cutting-board, and no counter space. IMPROVISE. Cutting board goes on top of burner, Bobbie tries not to amputate entire limbs whilst chopping an onion.

Heat olive oil in a large pan on medium-high heat until it swirls easily. Add onions and peppers and cook until translucent, 1-2 minutes. - Things still going pretty much according to plan at this point. Okay, so I don't have a large pan, but I shoved everything into a smallish one and hoped for the best.

While the onions and peppers are cooking, empty salad bag into a large bowl add and the cucumber and avocado. - It started to get tricky here, as I do not have a salad bowl and was working with my colander, the nicest piece of equipment currently in my kitchen, given to me by my boss. But there was no liquid in it yet, so smooth sailing.

Dress the greens with olive oil and vinegar (balsamic is my favorite), and season liberally with sea salt and cracked pepper. Toss with tongs and set aside. - I put the colander on top of a pasta bowl. Hey, it worked.

Don’t forget to monitor your vegetables while you are tending to your greens. - This emphasis is Darya's, and shall become key momentarily.

When ready, add mushrooms to the pan and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Cook until mixture starts to slightly brown then add sausage, making sure the cut ends touch the surface of the pan. Continue to cook until the edges of the sausage start to brown, 4-6 minutes. - This is when the smoke alarm goes off, as I had pretty much expected but was hoping to avoid. I smacked it a few times in between bouts of trying to open the window, which I finally got open. The smoke alarm conceded defeat, possibly permanently.

:-(

Scrape contents of the pan on top of the greens and mix well with tongs. This salad serves well with a chunk of baguette and even a bowl of TJ’s boxed Tomato and Red Pepper soup. - The ordeal finally over, I settled in to eat my delicious supper. This recipe supposedly serves two, but I halved it, saving the rest to prepare at work tomorrow, and it was way too much. I have tried saving it in the (probably vain) hope that somehow it might be the first salad in history to still be edible the next day.

Things I have learned:

-Balsamic vinegar + corn = amazing (I already knew this but was happy to rediscover)

-Say yes to Persian cucumbers

-I need a mixing bowl

-Open the window

But for tonight, bliss. The end result was a truly delicious salad:

Warm Sausage Salad à la Trader Joe's

Recipe by Darya Pino

found on summertomato.com

"I'm reading a really good book."

2010-07-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

As a linguist whose favorite class was Semantics, I can't help but be intrigued by the language used by blind students. It is surprising to outsiders (myself included) how often Perkins students use phrases like, "I'll see you later," or, "Come here, look at this!" Some of them make a joke of it, like the student who came into my office yesterday, laying on the charm. He said he wanted to travel the world "and, you'll get a kick out of this Bobbie - I want to see everything I can see. Pretty funny coming from a blind guy, huh?" But I think most of them don't even think of it. They're not associating the words they use with their original meaning, but rather with the corresponding actions in a blind world. The best example so far is the student who just came into my office to be rescheduled. I sent him to the library, and asked him to think about what he might like to do for the later period in which he will also have to be rescheduled. He said, "Oh, I don't mind going back to the library. I'm reading a really good book," despite the fact that no actual reading or books will be involved in that scenario - he'll be listening to a recording.

Baptism by fire.

2010-07-06T05:09:00.000-07:00

One of the teachers came in this morning and asked me when Diane will be back. Diane is the other Admin Assistant in the secondary program, and she's on vacation for three weeks. I'm doing her job as well as training for mine, and it ain't easy. It requires a much better knowledge of the individual students and staff than I have yet. I told him she was out all week and possibly next week, and he said, "Wow, it's really baptism by fire, isn't it?" I couldn't have put it better myself. And eight teachers (EIGHT!!) are out today, which means for every student they have I have to reschedule them on a case by case basis, period by period, which is part of Diane's job and is going to keep me from getting a lot of my work done today. Of course, my work is building new student files which is less than thrilling, but it's what I am here to do, and I am not doing it.

All whining aside, I had an EXCELLENT weekend! A friend of mine had a small, private wedding and afterwards hosted a dock party on a houseboat to which I was invited. Jimmy and I went and had a grand old time. Saturday morning we watched Always Sunny before getting in the car, picking up Monique and driving to Vermont to hang with the wedding folks and friends for the weekend. We went to Lake Caspian on Saturday evening and lit sparklers and had a fire going and drank beer and were merry. There weren't enough beds, so Jimmy and I slept in a tent, which was quite lovely. Sunday we went back to the lake, swimming and tubing and being tickled by minnows. I did not much enjoy the tubing, as it seemed the whole goal was to knock me off the tube into the water. This goal was met with much success, as well as some bleeding. Jimmy was the champion of the tube by far, staying on until the other Jim and I were almost ready to give up because we were so tired from driving the boat around.

Sunday night we set off some excellent fireworks, although I was beat and went to bed early. Monday we went to the Cabot Creamery, which was awesoooome. Jimmy and I eventually peaced out and came home, exhausted. We watched some Always Sunny and then went to Sweet Chili for Thai food. They had Kikkoman plum wine, which I haven't had in a long time and was super delicious. As was the Pad Thai, which I will continue to consume for at least the next three meals. The apparent endlessness of Pad Thai led Jim and I to speculate that the Feeding of the Multitude might actually be misrepresented, and there was in fact one order of Pad Thai rather than five loaves and two fish. Thai noodles and shrimp... close enough, right?

You know what? I like you.

2010-07-02T08:17:00.000-07:00

So I started slacking again. Big surprise. Well, I got my Masters degree in Linguistics from Tulane and moved back to Boston to my parents' house (for the moment). I finally got a job, and it's all I could ever want! At least for now. I am the Administrative Assistant in the Secondary Program at the Perkins School for the Blind. I'd love to blog in detail about it but there's a lot of stuff that's confidential and I'd rather err on the side of caution than betray someone's trust and lose my job.

But there are some things I can say. I love the job, I love my office, I love the kids. Today is my first day alone, meaning that the woman training me is out today, but ALSO the woman in the downstairs office is out for three weeks, so on my first week I am doing the jobs of two different people, neither of which I have fully grasped yet.

The best thing is the kids. They're hilarious, for one thing. They're just always joking around. Yesterday I heard three of them on their way to class just singing, "Bieber, Bieber, Bieber, ooooh, Bieber, Bieber, Bieber..." Today a girl named Hailey came into the office. I had met her once before, but I don't think she remembered. She asked who it was, and I said it was Bobbie and I am replacing Debby. She asked why Debby was leaving, and I told her. And then she said, "You know what? I like you." Every day something like that happens, something to just melt your heart and make you want to do every single thing to make sure that these sweet, beautiful, funny children get to grow up to be whatever they want, despite the crappy hand they've been dealt. I've never met a more positive group of people, or anyone whose personalities shine through the way these kids' do. It's only my 5th day, maybe the way I feel will change, but right now I am so happy to be here. I can't imagine any place I'd rather be.

Hello again

2009-11-09T11:07:00.000-08:00

I just got this comment:

"I found this site using [url=http://google.com]google.com[/url] And i want to thank you for your work. You have done really very good site. Great work, great site! Thank you!"

It makes me want to start writing again, perhaps about New Orleans though I don't do anything interesting. I do have a new camera and can start taking photos again. Right now we are all on tropical storm watch for Ida. It's very windy but no rain yet. I am considering going to the Northshore if it looks like it is going to be bad but it doesn't seem like it's getting any worse. Alas, my hopes of classes being cancelled will not be fulfilled.

Other things I could write about would be my awesome Vespa, the amusing things that go on when one works in a restaurant, especially the kitchen, being a grad student in linguistics and becoming disillusioned with it, wanting to quit doing linguistics after this year and be a nurse, looking forward to living alone in my own apartment when my lease is up, planning on adopting special needs cats... so I guess it's worth trying to keep it up. We shall see how it goes.

The Story of the Kitten

2008-10-30T08:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know I have been bad at blogging lately. I'm just so busy! And after Paris, nothing seems interesting anymore. But here is something to amuse you!

It was a morning just like any other morning, I woke up, showered, had breakfast, walked to campus... When I got to Newcomb Hall and walked in the door, I saw Graham, a guy from my class, sitting on the stairs playing with a kitten. I said, "Aw, who is this?" and he said, "I don't know." Apparently she had been wandering around outside Newcomb and then she wandered inside. Graham picked her up. She had a little flea collar on but no nametag. We went to our first class, Intro to Historical Linguistics, and just walked in with the kitten. Our professor is a crazy linguist, so she didn't mind. Graham usually sits next to me anyway, so we sat down and he was trying to get her to calm down but he couldn't. I picked her up and held her next to my heart, cuddled in my sweatshirt, and she fell right asleep. She slept in my arms for the entire class! I cannot tell you how amused I was to be sitting in class with a kitten.

After class, Graham and I walked down to my Philosophy classroom and asked my (tall, bemohawked, all black wearing Hulk) philosophy instructor if I could miss class to help Graham take the kitten to the vet to check if she had a microchip and just see if she was okay. Of course the minute I walked into class with a kitten I knew I had won the battle. A girl in the class agreed to email me the notes for the day. It was a review day anyway. So Graham and I walked to the Maple Street Small Animal Clinic and brought her in. They said she didn't have a microchip, she was too small. She hadn't had her shots, but she didn't have fleas. She had probably been out for a while and possibly had an upper respiratory infection. So they gave me some kitten food and some advice and I took her home!

Walking home

Since we thought she might be sick, I had to put some food and water and litter in my bathroom and shut her in there so she won't get the other cats sick. Mary came home and played with her, and then I came home and played with her. Graham and I named her Ad Hoc (long story), but Addie for short. She's adorable! I posted an ad on Craigslist saying we found her, but nobody claimed her.

Since we couldn't find her family, I took her back to the vet early the next week. She was still a little sick so they decided not to give her her shots yet. After the vet she was so tired that we came home and took a cuddly nap!

Mary and I decided we couldn't keep her, what with already having two adult cats in the house, so we gave her to Graham. But we have joint custody! I have visitation rights, and I'm also the Vet Mommy so I take her to the vet when she needs to go. And I'm allowed to bring her home for sleepovers sometimes. I go over to Graham's every so often to play with her.

Last time I saw her she was starting to get bigger! No longer poor malnourished kitten. The vet said she wouldn't have survived if we hadn't found her. She's such a sweetheart! She runs around and wreaks havoc at Graham's except when I come over, and then she sits on me and purrs for ages. I adore her!

Helping with my French paper!

I brought her into work

Happy birthday to me!

2008-09-17T10:08:00.001-07:00

So Sunday was my birthday. I have class early on Mondays, so I didn’t really want to go out on Sunday night, but what’s the point of going out for your 21st birthday before you actually turn 21? Mary (my roommate) said we should go out Saturday night, and I lamented that then I would not be able to order a drink at dinner. Mary said we could go to a bar at midnight and get a drink then and it would be exciting. I lamented that most bars in New Orleans let you in when you’re eighteen so what would be the point? Mary told me that Pat O’Brien’s, home of the Hurricane cocktail, dueling piano bar, “flaming” fountain, and many many stories from my friends, does not let you in until you are 21. So I agreed that that would be exciting.

My friends Vaune, Johnny and Amanda came to Mary’s and my apartment at 6:30. Mary informed me that it is a New Orleans tradition that, on your birthday, someone pins a dollar to your shirt. Then other people will know it’s your birthday and they are supposed to pin more dollars to your shirt. I thought this was crazy, but a lot of strangers wished me happy birthday while we were out!

So Amanda drove all of us to Port of Call, which is a restaurant on Esplanade, on the edge of the French Quarter. They have the best baked potatoes of all time, and pretty amazing burgers, too. They don’t take reservations and the wait outside is usually about an hour… but it’s worth it. We eventually got inside and all had delicious baked potatoes and burgers.

Dinner folk, minus Johnny (who was taking the picture):
Amanda, Vaune, Mary and me. Note the dollar!

Neither Vaune nor Amanda really wanted to stay out late, so they left after dinner. Johnny and Mary and I meandered over to Bourbon St. We couldn’t actually get in to Pat O’s until midnight, and we hadn’t really planned what to do for that time, so we just walked up and down Bourbon St. for a while. Eventually we stepped in to Hustlet Hollywood, which is a really silly store on Bourbon St. It seems every single time I go to Bourbon St. I stop in there… I can’t help it! It just amuses me so much. Also our legs were pretty tired by that time, and HH has this plush couch shaped like lips and draped with feather boas, so Mary and I sat there and rested our feet for a few minutes while Johnny made a goodnight phone call to his long-distance love.

In Hustler Hollywood: Mary seriously considered buying me this hat if I would agree to wear it any time she asked.

"Death of Bachelorhood" elaborate bachelor party parade on Bourbon

Johnny and I on Bourbon St

At around 11 we went out in search of a daquiri, but by the time we chose one of the many daiquiri spots, I wasn’t feeling too great. While we were standing around outside debating what to do, we ran into Ly, another friend of mine, and so we talked to her for a bit. Then, around 11:30, our friends Culum and Stacey finally made it into the Quarter. We decided that it was near enough to midnight that we could probably convince the bouncers to let me into Pat O’s, so we headed over there. The bouncer looked at my ID, looked at me, looked at my ID, looked at the dollars on my shirt, looked at my ID again, and finally got this huge grin on his face and said, “Happy Birthday!” and let us in. All was well. We went into the outdoor courtyard of Pat O’s, which was full of colored lights and fountains and pretty foliage and well-dressed cocktail waiters, and we all ordered Hurricanes. We sat around and played a silly card game we’d picked up at Hustler Hollywood and had an all-around good time.

My first drink as a 21 year old!

Johnny enjoying his Hurricane

Silliness with cherries

One Hurricane from Pat O’s is a pretty big drink, and I drink slowly, so by the time I’d finished mine it was near one. Stacey and Culum were ready to go, and I made the executive decision to go with them, because I had a lot of homework and didn’t want to be out too late either. While we were walking down Bourbon, I saw a Lucky Dog stand. Since I hadn’t bought a drink with my birthday money (which is what you are supposed to do) I bought a Lucky Dog with it! ¼ of meat, plus chili, pickle relish, onions and mustard. A great way to end the night!

So I went out and had a fun night with friends, did a lot of traditional New Orleanian things, and still was home relatively early (for a 21st birthday) and didn’t have too much to drink… so I will actually remember my 21st birthday! It was really a perfect night.

I did homework most of the day on my actual birthday, but then for dinner my friend Rachel and I went to O'Henry's, a restaurant that serves free steak on your birthday. And it's good steak! So I had a free steak, and then the family at the table next to us heard that it was my 21st birthday, so they insisted on buying my drink (which was a very strange blue concoction), which was really cute. It was parents with children and a grandmother (named Bobbe, short for Roberta!), and the mom was all matter-of-factly explaining the importance of turning 21. The little boy was very intrigued. It was adorable.

Well now that I have shared this story with you I can be off to the rest of my day! Which mostly involves doctor's appointments, pharmacies and grocery shopping.

No me Gustav

2008-09-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

So I never wrote about my evacuation, or my classes, but now I want to write about my birthday! So first, quick recap:

Thursday: Decided to evacuate, called home

Friday: Got on a plane at 4:30 PM to Dallas. They told us that all flights in and out of Dallas were being delayed an hour, so our flight was delayed an hour, but all the connecting flights would be delayed, too. So I got to Dallas and, of course, my flight had left an hour ago. I couldn’t get on the last flight to Boston so I spent the night in the airport, after befriending a young Loyola student named Ray. We camped out at Gate A37. I got eaten by fire ants in the night. Ray was spared.

Saturday: Got home around one, did some shopping and some laundry, took a shower, and drove to Connecticut to spend a few days with Jim and all the other UConners. Très relaxing. While I was there I went through the painful process of getting my flight home changed from Wednesday to Sunday… they weren’t even letting people back into the city until Thursday, but of course since my flight was booked by American Airlines but carried by US Airways, nobody could cancel it. Until they could. Funny, that.

Wednesday through Saturday I was in Lexington, bumming around, doing work for the classes I was missing. Sunday I flew back to NOLA, though it took me most of the day, because at one point I gave up my seat for a free travel voucher and then they said they couldn’t get me on the next flight and I would have to wait. But since they gave me a first class ticket when I gave up my seat, when I got on standby for the next flight and all they had open were first class seats, I took preference over the other passengers! So I flew back to NOLA first class. I met up with a friend at the airport, we shared a cab home, went to the grocery store (which was mostly empty) and I made dinner for another friend that evening, to help me relax.

Then I started classes on Monday. My Monday schedule:

9AM: Intro to Historical Linguistics
10 AM: Beginning with Minds
11 AM: Linguistic Field Methods
12 PM: Intermediate Italian

and then my French Senior Seminar (on French national identity) is from 4:30 to 7 PM. Long day. Especially once I started work as the “administrative assistant” of the department of Cell and Molecular Biology (they were hiring!) and I work from 1:30-4 on Mondays.

Tuesday I have an 8 AM Italian class and then a 5:30 PM Astronomy class followed by observation, and on Thursday I have just Astronomy. I’m also writing an Honors thesis. This adds up to 22 credit hours. To the intense relief of all of my advisers and loved ones, I dropped Italian yesterday. It’s the only one I don’t need to graduate. The Linguistic Field Methods class is the one I am taking for my Masters. Exciting!

I’ve been meeting with all sorts of advisers trying to figure this year out. It’s going to be complicated. But I’m done talking about all that now! I want to talk about my birthday!

Just in case you were wondering...

2008-09-09T14:52:00.000-07:00

I have absolutely no time to post while juggling all of my academic and extracurricular commitments, but here's the latest Tulane Ike info:

"Hurricane Ike will cross western Cuba in the next few hours and emerge over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico this afternoon. The storm is expected to move across the central Gulf of Mexico. Tulane officials continue to monitor Ike’s track, which at this time appears to be heading toward the lower to middle Texas coast."

Take me back to New Orleans

2008-09-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

So it has occurred to me that some of you might be mildly interested in hearing a bit about the New Orleans/Gustav situation. I had planned to get back into posting regularly once I was back in the swing of things in New Orleans (because, let's face it, a year in New Orleans can certainly be just as interesting and hazardous as a year in Paris). I was gearing up to get you all up to date on my first few days moving into my new apartment and starting classes, and then Gustav hit. So let's begin at the beginning! We'll get to the juicy bits (read: evacuation story) later.

The week before my departure for New Orleans is a little fuzzy. I was originally scheduled to fly out on August 23rd, which gave me only four days before the start of classes to furnish my apartment. My roommate, Mary, had already been living there for a couple of months, so she'd taken care of a lot of it, but I didn't have a stick of furniture for my own room. I also had a lot of other things to worry about - petitioning for credit for my classes, finding a work-study job, finding a second job, meeting with my academic adviser, meeting with my thesis adviser, declaring my Linguistics major, meeting with the Honors program people... so many meetings! I had managed to fit it all into those four days, along with buying a bed, picking up some donated furniture from a friend, and tabling at an event with the student health organization that I am a part of.

Unfortunately, due to a family matter, I had to change my flight to Monday, August 25th. So now I had approximately a day and a half to do all of those things.

On Monday, my friends Sarah and Carolyn drove me to Logan Airport at an ungodly hour. I had slept for a mere three hours the night before. I was very early for my first flight, but finally got on it and it took me to Atlanta (still no direct flights from Boston to New Orleans). My second flight, in Atlanta, left the gate on time but due to some pesky tropical storm known as Gustav, we had to wait on the tarmac to be rerouted around the storm, which took about an hour. Finally we took off, arriving in New Orleans about an hour late. My roommate Mary picked me up and took me to our apartment. I didn't have a key yet, and Mary had to run back to class (it was her first day of law school) so I sat around in the apartment, acquainting myself with it, unpacking, playing with the cats, and enjoying the air conditioning. After Mary got back from class we went and picked up my key from her friend. We also went grocery shopping and picked up a dresser and a desk from a friend of mine in New Orleans who is getting new furniture and decided to donate her old stuff to me. When we got back Mary had a migraine so she crashed and I started to bring the furniture in but I was very tired. Luckily some random Asian man who is our neighbor took it upon himself to carry all of my furniture up to my apartment. Very nice. I was too tired to put it together, though, so I crashed.

Miss Lily playing in the un-set-up furniture

Tuesday morning I set up my furniture and then had an advising meeting at 9, where my adviser told me that I'm doing great, I signed my Application for Degree, and my credit hour allowance was extended to a whopping 25. My laptop is currently out of commission, so I headed over to one of Tulane's computer labs. I was fiddling with calendars and checking email and stuff until I realized that my job interview was at 12 and not 12:30. I realized this at 12:01. I dashed across campus to Stern, which is a big sciencey building that I have never been in, and tried to find the department. Nearly impossible. But eventually, at 12:10, I stumbled upon the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. I went in and had my interview. It went really well and they told me I would hear from them by Wednesday.

Miss Lily (up top) and Mufasa George Rockefeller enjoying the playground of my new desk.

After my interview I had lunch with my good friend Johnny, who I met when I was 15 at my father's college reunion and who was abroad in Japan all year, and we were joined by Jen and Laura, two girls who did the JYA in France with me.

I went home after that and a friend of mine, Ly (pronounced "Lee"), who is an RA brought, over a futon (sans frame) that one of her residents left behind after moving out. Mary and I put it up against the wall but it didn't feel very couch-like.

Mary playing with Mufasa

Then it was time to obtain a bed. This is where the real adventure begins (sort of). Mary and I hopped into the car and headed over to MattressFirm, which is where Mary bought her bed. I called my bank and upped my daily withdrawal limit to $1000, which is high as they would let me go, because I needed a bed and I also needed to pick up the stuff I had put on hold at Bed, Bath and Beyond. As Mary and I headed into MattressFirm, I mentioned to her that I could spend $450 and no more on a bed, because I needed the rest of the money for my Bed, Bath and Beyond stuff. So we went into the store, and there was only one guy working there (who turned out to be the assistant manager). We walked in, looking a bit overwhelmed, and he asked us how he could help us. I just said to him, "I'm looking for a full bed, cheap." He walked me right over to the clearance section, and pulled out a mattress, which he said was the most comfortable for its price. I tested it out, along with a couple others and he was right - it was the best one. It was $400, and the frame was $40. "Perfect!" I said, "That's exactly the right price!"

Of course, when we sat down to add it all up, with taxes and delivery, it cost closer to $550. So Mary and I scrapped the delivery idea and made the assistant manager guy promise to help us tie the mattress and box spring to the top of Mary's truck. Even without delivery, though, it came to about $475, which I still couldn't afford. Plus, for some reason, they didn't have the cheap frame I wanted. So I was talking to Mary, trying to figure out what we could do. I just didn't have the money to spend that day, and she couldn't drive me back out to the store anytime soon. We were kind of stuck. Suddenly the assistant manager just says, "How much do you have? $450? I'll make it work." And he magically made it all cost $450, including the more expensive bed frame. Just like that. And then he carried it all out to Mary's truck and masterfully tied the mattress and box spring to the top. And when I asked him if there were anyone I could call and tell what a great job he did, he said, "No, I'm the assistant manager. Just hearing that is enough." What a nice guy! I swear he would have come home with us and carried it inside if we asked.

So then we drove across the street to Bed, Bath and Beyond. They packed up all my stuff for me (including a mattress pad that was nicer than the one I'd chosen, but for the same price, because they were out of the one I'd chosen), and rang it up, but it still cost more than I'd planned, so I magically picked and chose things that I didn't really need and brought the price way down. It was really my day for being thrifty! Of course now I am going to have to go back and buy myself a second set of sheets sometime soon, but I can do with just one for now.

We headed home and the aforementioned Johnny effortlessly helped us moved my bed inside and set it up. I owe him dinner.

The rest of the night was low-key. Maybe later I'll write about the next day - first day of classes!

Mufasa on my new bed

Mufasssssaaaaaa!

Birds of Paradise

2008-08-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

I watched the first episode of Planet Earth last night. There was a clip of two kinds of birds of paradise trying to attract a mate. The first one is funny but the second one made me die laughing. ENJOY! Seriously. Watch it. Especially if you could used a good laugh.

Never fear - I plan on continuing the blog once I get back to New Orleans. It's going to be a crazy year what with "secret double enrollment," two majors, an honors thesis, beginning my Master's, moving into my first apartment, and being back in the city that care forgot.

Euthyphro's Dilemma

2008-07-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

My friend Andy (not my brother Andy) wrote in his blog about Euthyphro's dilemma ("Is what is moral commanded by God because it is moral, or is it moral because it is commanded by God?"). I think it is an interesting question, but I also think that, at least in his explanation of it, it is a bit oversimplified. I encourage you to go take a look at the post and at the comments and add your own input, either in my blog or in his. It's not in my nature to take anything at face value or to believe that there could be a question such as that with only two possible answers... so let's explore the gray area together!

Continued?

2008-07-03T17:00:00.001-07:00

I am going to try to continue writing in this blog, when I am doing interesting things. Interesting to me, anyway. We'll see how it goes.

So on Monday I went to Connecticut to visit Jim, who I spent a lot of time with in Paris. He got home on Saturday, and I drove to Connecticut on Monday morning. I have never actually stopped in Connecticut before, except maybe to stop for gas on my way to Philadelphia. I am not sure what I was expecting, but Connecticut certainly exceeded my expectations.

I got to Jim's house around 11:30, and he showed me around his house. I saw his mom and his brother, who I met once before in Paris when we went down to the Catacombs. Jim had to vacuum their pool (yes, they have a pool) so I got to lounge around in the yard in my swimsuit and then go swimming in the newly clean pool! Afterwards we played Guitar Hero, which was a new experience for me. I have to admit, it was pretty fun. We had some lunch and we went to the place where Jim was trying to get his job back, but they were closed, so we went back. We hung out a bit and then had dinner - Cajun style catfish on the grill!! Mmm. After dinner we had sherbet and sat out on the porch in the sun - Jim, his parents, his brother Danny, and me. While we were sitting out there, his older brother Steve came home with his girlfriend Sam, who was really fun. They threw around a rugby ball and I sat with Jeanne and Danny. Steve wanted to play Rock Band so we all went downstairs and took turns playing the guitar, the drums, and singing the vocals. I was horrible at it, but I take pride in not having a lot of experience with video games!

I got a little bored of it so Jim and I went for a walk. He showed me his town, South Windsor. We walked around and saw his high school and stuff. It was quite buggy so we headed back, and chilled out with the family and just lazed around. It was quite summery and nice. I don't usually do those quintessentially summery things, like swimming in pools and sitting on the porch eating sherbet. I enjoyed it.

Later that night Jim and I watched "The Others." It wasn't as scary as I had feared, and I slept just fine. I got Jim's room while Jim slept on the top bunk in his brother's room. He has a big bed. It was nice, and comfy, but I am not used to big beds so I just squished myself over to one side the whole night.

Around 6:30AM was when the trouble started. I have this problem where I can't sleep once it gets light out. I didn't have as much of a problem in France because I had heavy, dark-colored curtains. In my room at home, I have blinds that nearly black out my room. But the shades in Jim's room don't do much, so I woke up around 6:30 AM. But I laid around until about 9 and then showered and then we had breakfast. Jim and I drove back over to his place of employment to pick up his uniform, and when we got back we picked up his brother Danny and went over to their cousins' house to swim in THEIR pool. Everyone has a pool!

Now Danny just had an appendectomy, so he couldn't swim. He had to sit by the side of the pool and throw the beach ball back in at us. But he was a good sport. It was Jim's aunt Christine's new house, and they have an in ground pool with a diving board. I wasn't sure I remembered the proper form for diving off a diving board and not seriously injuring yourself, but apparently muscle memory is a spectacular thing. As soon as I got on the diving board my legs and arms knew what to do. It was really fun. I love the feeling of diving. It's so amusing to me that it came back to me so easily, considering how hard it was (and terrifying) for me to learn to dive in the first place. I remember, I was about thirteen, and I had to start by diving in from the side of the pool, and then once I got the hang of that I had to do it from the low board, and then I had to learn how to run and do it, and finally I was able to do it off the really high board. And then of course there was the time I dove so hard I lost my bathing suit top and had to swim around in the town pool trying to find it. Oops.

So anyway, we had a good time. I met Jim's aunt Christine and her children Kenny, Christopher, and Isabelle. Christopher (age 11) was pretty crazy and just generally out there and excited to meet a new person. It was fun. We heard thunder so we all ran inside and played Wii Bowling and ate snacks. The sun came out again so we went back into the pool, until we heard more thunder. Then Christine wanted us to see her new rocking chairs in her breezeway, so we sat out there and rocked and eventually everyone came out and joined us. At this point we had also been joined by another aunt and two more cousins. The highlight of the day was MOST CERTAINLY an article we read in the local paper about a chimpanzee. Christine read it out loud to us. You can find the article here. You really have to read the whole thing.

After a while we headed home to Jim's house, where we had Shepherd's Pie for dinner. After dinner Jim took me to the mall (ooooh) and then one of his friend's from UConn called so we drove to UConn and saw Jim's future apartment, where his friend is currently living, and we hung out with them and listened to music and watched some guys light off Roman candles.

On the way back I was starving so we stopped at Subway and I got a meatball sub and burned my mouth. Very exciting, I know. But seriously. I haven't had a meatball sub in over a year. It was late when we got home, so we crashed.

Wednesday we went to the beach. We had been invited by Christine. We met a different cousin, Bob, at his house around 10:30, armed with sandwiches, soda, potato chips, CheezIts, Swedish Fish, towels, beach toys, sunglasses, a blanket and a million other beach necessities. We packed it into Bob's car and drove the hour and a half to Westerly, RI, to Misquamicut State Beach. I didn't know there were things in Rhode Island besides Providence... and a beach?? What a surprise! It was pouring rain when we left South Windsor, and by the time we got to the beach, it was covered in fog. It was very strange, and you couldn't see more than about twenty feet in front of you. And yet the beach was packed. Christine predicted the fog would burn off by about one, and she was exactly right. After that it was a perfect beach day. We swam, we boogie boarded, we walked along the beach, we got ice cream, we ate out sandwiches, we wore our sunglasses, we got covered in sand, and I got burned. We were at the beach until at least five. Then it was a sandy drive home. I was supposed to drive home that night, but Jim's mom suggested I stay the extra night because I was most likely exhausted. She was right, especially because I had woken up at six-thirty again. We ordered a super yummy pizza, and then pretty much just crashed. We were all exhausted and we all had to get up in the morning

This morning I woke up at 6:30 again. What a shocker! Jim was getting ready for work so I joined him for breakfast. After he left I showered and packed up my stuff and got in the car, after saying goodbye to Jeanne. About halfway home I got a call from Jim saying he'd gotten called off work, but at that point it was a bit late to turn around. Oh well. The best part of the trip home was that I knew that gas was much cheaper in MA than in CT (they got rid of all the tolls in CT, but upped gas taxes, apparently) so my goal was not to stop for gas until I crossed into Massachusetts. I barely made it, but it was worth it. I saw gas for up to 4.39 in CT (for regular unleaded) and the stuff I got was 4.05. From Mobil, no less.

So I got home around 10:30, and ran some errands, after which I kind of vegged out for the rest of the day. I need a vacation from my vacation! Hanging out with someone else's energetic, large family for three days was exhausting! But tomorrow I start actually working (more on that later, perhaps) and then tomorrow night my friend Monique and I are going camping at Harold Parker State Forest for the 4th of July. I'll keep you updated!

The one picture from the weekend: Bobbie wakes up to a friendly cat.

Re-entry

2008-06-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning (June 4th) I woke up at six, showered, and made sure I had all my bags together. Jim graciously agreed to drag himself out of bed at seven to help me get to the airport, for which I am eternally grateful, as I would never had made it on my own. Plus, paying for my train ticket to the airport and Jim’s train ticket there and back, at 24€, was still cheaper than paying for a cab. It turned out to be a good decision, financially at least, because my bags were so overweight that I had to pay an arm and a leg to check them (it was because of all my vacuum-packed clothes). But I eventually got that worked out and made it through security with no problem, although the guy letting people into the boarding area hassled me about the size of my carry-on , and the guy at the security check was flirting with me, which always baffles me and makes me shut down, so I was pretty flustered when I got through. Also they went through both my carry-on and my backpack. My Epi-pens, jars of spices and massive frying pan mixed in with clothes and makeup probably looked pretty menacing on the x-ray screen. The thing is, with my carry-ons, it’s usually almost all last-minute stuff that I almost forgot and then just squeezed in somewhere.

Wistful to be leaving Paris.

Thinking about when I can come back

Bye Jimmy :-(

My 10:25 flight to Dublin had apparently been changed to 10:40 sometime between when my Dad made the reservations and when I got to the airport, and then all the screens said it was on-time but at 10:50 it still hadn’t boarded. We finally took off around 11:15. I still had a pretty long layover in Dublin so I wasn’t really worried, but I should have been, as I hadn’t taken into account the fact that in Dublin I would have to in fact exit the terminal, go through passport control, get a new boarding pass, go through security again (with my bags opened up again), and go through US Customs and Border Protection before actually boarding my flight.

I did do all that, and ended up cutting it pretty close. The craziest thing in this whole day, though, was what happened in the Customs and Border Protection line.

I don’t know if anyone who reads this blog watches American Idol. I would like to pretend that I myself do not. However, I cannot tell a lie - I got hooked on it. I had a few favorite contestants, my two top picks being Carly Smithson and David Cook. David Cook ended up winning. Carly Smithson ended up being in the Customs and Border Protection line at Dublin airport.

I noticed her husband first - he’s pretty hard to miss. They featured him a few times on the show, and his whole face is covered in very distinct tribal tattoos. Carly has a lot of tattoos, too, and I always thought both of their tattoos were very cool, so the first thing I recognized was the tattooed face of Carly Smithson’s husband. First I thought, “Wow, that guy has a lot of tattoos on his face.” Then, “He looks like Carly Smithson’s husband.” Then, “Who’s that pretty woman next to him?” Then, “Carly Smithson is from Ireland, and I’m in Ireland.” Then, “Oh my God that’s Carly Smithson.”

I have met several famous people in my lifetime. Some I knew I was going to meet - Art Garfunkel, Davey Jones, Sam Waterston. Some, I didn’t know I was going to meet - James Taylor, Amanda Palmer, John Malkovitch (okay, okay, I didn’t really meet him, he just stared me down in a piercing parlor in Harvard Square). And most of that second list, I didn’t really get the impact of it at the time. I was seven when I met James Taylor, and I didn’t know who he was. Amanda Palmer went to LHS. and that’s where I met her, with Sam Kafrissen trying to set us up. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. This was super different. Carly Smithson may not be as famous as those people, and none of you may care who she is, but I admit that I watched American Idol every week up until about a month and a half ago. I loved her voice and her personality and he whole story. Seeing her there, it was the first time I had seen and recognized a famous person, and in such a banal setting, it seemed so unreal. So I was completely starstruck, probably for the first time in my life.

So I walked over to them. Because I am a creep. I literally was just like, “Excuse me, are you Carly Smithson?” half-expecting her to say, “No, but I get that a lot.” I was actually pretty surprised when she said yes, and then I didn’t know what to do. I was really at a loss for words. I felt ridiculous. It’s just so hard to explain how weird it was. You see someone on TV. You see them every week. You know a lot about them. Their face is very familiar to you. But it’s all static, it’s all one-way. They are on a screen. It’s a barrier. Even with live TV, it’s fixed in place, because nothing in my life would ever impact anything in her life, even though she’s impacted the lives of millions of people. So when that barrier is taken away, and I am standing next to her in the Dublin airport, and the things that she says are a direct result of the things that I say to her, it becomes very very weird, and even a little sad. She seemed a little wary, but her husband told me they were going home to the US and asked me where I was headed and was flattered and amused when I told them I liked their tattoos. I think they were pretty amused at my tongue-tiedness. Finally I told them to have a good flight and kind of ran away, embarrassed. I wish I’d said something witty or intelligent, or told her how talented I think she is (or asked her for David Cook’s phone number). I also wished I’d had an accessible camera, or asked for her autograph or something, just something that a normal fan would do, instead of standing there spluttering about tattoos. But I was just completely taken by surprise by her being there.

So yeah, I felt kind of idiotic afterwards, but it was still really freaking cool. I eventually got on my plane to Boston from Dublin with no difficulty, and that’s where I am writing this post from. I should be in Boston in a couple of hours. Home sweet home! But I miss Paris already. I have a feeling there will be posts in the future about re-adjusting to life stateside, but I’m not sure how long the Paris blog should continue now that I am no longer in Paris.

And here it is, AT LONG LAST, photos (finally) courtesy of Jimmy - My Last Days in Paris!

2008-06-23T17:20:00.000-07:00

Au revoir, Paris.

Monday (June 3rd) was my last full day in Paris. Sunday night I went back to my favorite little Chinese restaurant, Nénuphar on Avenue de Choisy. I highly recommend it. The food is amazing, the prices are moderate, the service is great, and the best thing is that nobody knows about it, so it’s never crowded. It’s usually nearly empty. If you’re in Paris, you should definitely go, because with that kind of business who knows how long before they have to close down.

Monday morning I was pretty sad, and in a funk from events of the night before, and not sure of what I wanted to do. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to do something I’d never done, or go do something again that I loved. I decided on sleeping in. Oops.

Anyway, in the afternoon I did eventually decide to go visit Shakespeare & Co., because it is kind of a Mecca for English speakers in Paris and I had never been. So I went there and perused the used books on the shelves outside, sitting down to read some of The Turn of the Screw and re-read the first story from In the Land of Dreamy Dreams.

Finally I went inside and looked through their new stock. I thought about buying a book about Paris, for when I miss it, but nothing struck my fancy. Jim showed me the second floor, too, with the reference books that you can’t buy, and the little carrel where people have left hundreds of notes, both scrawled on scraps of paper and typed on the tiny typewriter.

Afterwards Jim remembered that at one point I had said that I wanted to go see the Pont Mirabeau, because of the famous poem:

Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

Les mains dans les mains restons face à face
Tandis que sous
Le pont de nos bras passe
Des éternels regards l'onde si lasse

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

I’m so glad he remembered: I would never have thought of it. We took the 10 straight from Saint-Michel and went over to the bridge. It was nothing much to speak of, but it had a pretty nice view of the smaller French Statue of Liberty with the Eiffel Tower looming in the background.

Of course, now, writing this, I am sad that I didn't go back to the Lapin Agile a fourth time (one of the guys there sings that poem set to music). I know I will go back one day but I am sure the same people won't be there, and it was the people and the fact that they recognized Erin and me that I loved so much.

Earlier in the day I had said that I was interested in trying to cook something that I had never cooked before for my last night. Jim wanted to send me off in style, and he suggested we make a French dinner since I refused to have any sort of actual party. So we went on Allrecipes.com and searched through their recipes for French cuisine. Soupe à l’oignon was pretty much a given - we just had to pick a recipe. For the main dish we decided to make pork chops stuffed with bleu cheese, chives and bacon. It looked amazing. So I had written down the grocery list and after I had had my fill of the Pont Mirabeau I took my last trip to the mall in the Village d’Asie (Chinatown) which is where I like to do some of my grocery shopping because they have a massive supermarket.

Waiting for the tram for my last trip to Géant

We got all the ingredients, including gorgonzola as our bleu cheese, which was a nice touch because I have been trying to find gorgonzola in France without much success for most of the year. If I’d known I could have gotten it at Géant, I would have done so a long time ago.

On the way back with the goods

We headed home and chilled out for a bit before starting dinner. We were both pretty tired. We decided that Jim would make the soup and I would make the pork chops, mostly because I was pretty excited about learning how to make stuffed anything. Never done that before. I did have to have Jim butterfly the pork chops though, as I am not even handy enough with a knife to slice a bagel.

Taking over the kitchen!

Jim enjoying dinner

Delicious stuffed pork chops!

And next to it, Jim's French Onion Soup, which he was worried about but I thought was delicious

To make a long story short, the meal was delicious. If anyone wants the recipe for the chops, drop me an e-mail. As we were finishing up, Amy showed up with perfect timing. She couldn’t bear for me to leave without seeing me one more time (who could, really?) so she cut short a night out and brought her date over for pancakes and s’mores. We didn’t actually end up making the s’mores, but Amy did make pancakes even though Audrey had to leave before they were ready. So Amy and Jim and I had pancakes and Amy and I said our tearful goodbyes.

Amy

I have been known to sneak up very quietly
\

Jim, and Amy's date, who Amy and I left alone together for a bit because we're kind of mean

I got to say goodbye to Mike...

...and Tim

Attempting to make pancakes from crepe mix

A little spaced out?

Pancrepecakes!

Bye Amy :-(

All in all, it was a good last day.

Just something to amuse

2008-06-22T05:19:00.000-07:00

I still don't have those pictures from my last days in Paris, but just to keep you busy I managed to dig up this photo of my trip to the Guinness storehouse in Dublin. To recap, I met Rita, a flight attendant, in the line at the storehouse, and we did our self-guided tour together. When we got to the bar up top we met Rob (Canadian) and Mikael (Swede). Then we all accidentally (in all seriousness) stole our pint glasses. And drank from them out on the street in front of the factory. You can read the whole story here.

Maybe I will have more of these later. I am still waiting on all the ones from Rita, the flight attendant, although Rob the Canadian took a bunch, too, and this one is his so maybe I'll get more from him.

Still alive...

2008-06-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

So I just thought I would let everyone know that I am still alive, and home. I have not updated about the end of my time in Paris for two reasons:

1. I cannot get onto my computer right now as the keyboard doesn't work. I have ordered a keyboard which should arrive today or tomorrow, and I already have a new mouse. I will use them with my laptop during the summer and hopefully buy a new MacBook at the end of the summer! If I can get a job...

2. I am waiting for my friend to upload all the pictures from my last days in Paris.

Soon!

Cannes: The aftermath!

2008-06-03T18:01:00.000-07:00

These are some things I have done since Cannes:

1. Marijka visited Paris.

2. Had a picnic in the park.

Ducks ate our cheese.

3. Went to a carnival.

There was Italian ice at the carnival.

4. Sarah and Carolyn came to visit.

We got fallafel.

5. Went to a Polish restaurant in the crypt of a Catholic church.

Cannes (cont'd)

2008-06-01T01:53:00.001-07:00

So somehow we made it to Saturday morning. James and I made our way to Gare de Lyon (neither of us had ever been there before) and found our train. We hadn't managed to get seats near each other on our first train (the four hour train) so we went our separate ways, although we did end up in the cars next to each other and the seat next to me was empty after a couple hours so James came and chilled with me for a bit. When we got to Toulon, we had a half hour before our next train, we were hungry, and we wanted to actually be able to say we'd been to Toulon, so we left the train station to find food. We found a little grocery store and got snacks and took some pictures of Toulon. Then we got on our next train, with seats next to each, and ate our snacks and talked loudly like the Americans we are for an hour until we got to Cannes.

Toulon

We wandered around the train station looking for Stephanie and Emily until eventually they found us. They had spent some time looking around Cannes while they waited for us, and they herded us off in the direction that they figured was where our condo was. We had the address, and on the way we met a guy who just told us exactly where it was. Convenient. It was a bit of a hike, with our bags and all, but we made it safe and sound. We thought we weren't going to be able to check in until five, but in fact our rooms were ready. We had reserved two rooms, each with its own toilet, shower, kitchen and balcony. When we got up there, however, we realized that one room had two twin beds and one room had a futon. Emily and Stephanie graciously took the futon so that Jim and I could have the twin beds.

As soon as we put our stuff away we headed down to the beach (on La Croisette). It was really not that far from our condo. We laid out in the sun and went swimming in the Mediterranean! It was wonderful. We even got burgers and fries and ate them on the beach. Mmmm, vacation.

Walking to the beach

Thumbs up!

Stephanie is really excited to be in Cannes

Emily is confused

We're really white.

Captain Bobbie Sparrow

Captain Jim Sparrow

On our way back we stopped at a little grocery store and got some things to eat for dinner, as well as beer and wine. We sat out on our balcony and ate and drank and were merry. I had brought my iPod speakers, so they got quite a bit of use as well. After dinner there was a little bumpy air with me getting upset over something trivial, but eventually we moved past it and went for a walk.

Dinner: Stephanie is thirsty

Emily and Jim

The view from our balcony

We walked down to the beach in the dark. We laid out on a wooden platform in front of a tent that was being set up for the film festival until someone made us leave, and then we went over to the beach. Emily drunkenly befriended many many French people, and Stephanie and Jim and I all ran into the Mediterranean in the middle of the night in various stages of undress. This seems to be becoming a regular thing for me. In which sea shall I take a nocturnal dip next?

After that we were wet and cold and ready for showers and bed, so we made the trek back up to our condo and showered and shook the sand out of our hair and collapsed.

Sunday morning was beautiful and warm and sunny. We kind of lazed around for a lot of the morning. When we finally did get up, we went to try and find a bathing suit for Stephanie and then what did we do? We went to the beach! My bathing suit wasn't really fitting me very well but I didn't feel like buying a new one so I went in shorts and a tank top. Bad idea. There's a reason we have special clothes for swimming. By the end of the afternoon I was extremely sandy and uncomfortable and unhappy, but I did get some sun and Emily and Jim did build a sandcastle and then donate it to a small French child. Stephanie had to leave to find an internet café to do some sort of job interview over the phone, so Jim and Emily and I headed back to the condo without her. We decided it might be nice to go out to dinner just one night, and Emily wanted to see some celebrities, so we all showered and decided to head down into town. I'm not sure what we expected Stephanie to do, but I had her phone number. Luckily we ran into her on the way down. We went to the beach where Emily thought the celebrities would be, but we didn't see any. We did find some cool handprint things though.

Excited to be in Cannes

Peace.

What?

Sharon Stone

Michael Douglas

Tim Robbins

Vanessa Redgrave

Eventually we set out to find a not-too-expensive restaurant. Of course, every restaurant in Cannes is expensive, but when in doubt, do Italian. Pizza is always relatively affordable.

So we settled into a nice Italian restaurant. Jim and I both got pizzas, Emily got some seafood thing, and Stephanie (who had already eaten) got a banana split! Mmm. We also got two carafes of wine. Gotta love France. I'm going to miss the wine.

Banana split!

I'm a little hazy on the post-supper details. I think that was the night that we tried to find the little grocery store again and couldn't, and Jim and I separated from Emily and Stephanie and laid on the grass in some square and then went to Haagen-Dazs. I also think that was the night that we all had to rub burn cream on Emily's sunburned butt while we played a French card game called Jungle Speed... but I may be wrong. The days were all sunny and wonderful and the nights were all full of wine, so they kind of blur into each other. All I know is that eventually we went to bed.

Monday seemed like a good day NOT to go to the beach, since Emily and I were both pretty burnt. I don't remember which happened first but at one point Steph and Jim went grocery shopping, and at another point Jim and I went for a walk. It was really nice. We found a pirate themed candy store called Les Bonbons du Pirate, which was pretty awesome. We got some candy and brought it home.

Out for a walk

This man walks funny.

This man was bursting out of a building.

Back at the condo Emily and I were starting to pack up our stuff because we had to be on our sleeper train at 8:30 pm. We ate one last dinner in Cannes, with some wine, rubbed some more burn cream on Emily's back, and eventually headed out for the train station. Emily and I caught our train with no problem. I didn't sleep much at all, but Emily did and we got to Gare d'Austerlitz at 7:20 AM. Getting back from Austerlitz to the Cité U was surprisingly easy, and I had time to shower and relax before class.

All in all, I'm glad I went. It was extremely stressful to plan and I am poor now, but it was totally worth it. It was pretty much the best decision I've made all year. Or at least a close second.

Crazed for Cannes

2008-05-24T07:24:00.000-07:00

So I should probably write about Cannes, seeing as it's been nearly 20 days since I updated my blog, and Cannes was amazing.

To finish up about my previous trip, Scotland was great, probably my favorite place that I visited on my trip. Here are some pictures:

Kathryn and I made a cake and stored it in the sink overnight and then ate it straight out of the sink in the morning

Ruins

Bobbie's in a church! Sort of.

Well, it used to be a church.

Just tryin to stay in touch.

Kathryn's friend Stephen and I ran into the North Sea in our clothes at 2 AM. It's a St. Andrews tradition (called the May Dip) to run into the sea at dawn on May 1st. It washes your sins away. But Stephen had had an exam and obviously I hadn't been there, so we decided to do it at 2 AM on May 5th instead. COLD.

Kathryn and I on a really old bridge.

One really interesting thing that happened is that in the Glasgow airport I met this cool girl who was heading to Paris to catch a train to Brussels. We sat next to each other on the plane and chatted and then I helped her get into the city from Beauvais. From there I went with her on the Metro to get her to Gare du Nord, but then looking at her train schedule she realized that it was too late and she was going to have to spend the night in Paris. Thanks to Ryanair being insane, I had basically now spent about seven hours with this girl, and I felt comfortable offering her my floor. So we went back to the Cité, made some pasta, and crashed. She left in the morning but gave me the book she'd been reading (The Rabbi's Daughter by Reva Mann) which was pretty cool. I read it in Cannes! But I am getting there.

So I got back from Scotland on a Monday night, exhausted, broke, with a guest, and not looking forward to going to class on Tuesday. But I did, and I went on Wednesday, too, although of course I was exhausted because Wednesday mornings I have a translation class at 8 AM and I can almost never sleep on Tuesday nights because I have anxiety dreams all night about oversleeping and I wake up every hour panicking that I didn't hear my alarm. Even though I always hear my alarm.

Anyway, so Wednesday I was exhausted. I went to my eight AM class, then ran back across the city for my 11:30 class, then had some lunch and ran back to Clignancourt for my 3:30 translation class. My friend Emily is in that class. She had told me she would meet me there instead of the lobby of our building because she had to buy a bus ticket, but when I got there she was nowhere to be seen. She came in about 45 minutes late, and she wrote me a note on her translation assignment:

"Do you want to go to Cannes this weekend?"
"I don't know, I'm exhausted and broke and just got home from traveling two nights ago and just spent my first night alone in my room in three weeks. Where are you staying?"
"In a condo."
"Whose condo?"
"It's 311€ for four people for three nights."
"I don't know, probably not. Who's going?"
"James, Stephanie and me."

I pretty much wished I could go to Cannes for the weekend, but didn't feel like I could do it. I was completely exhausted and pretty broke and just didn't want to deal with it. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I had to do it. So what if I am broke? I can scrape it together. So what if I am exhausted? This is my last month in France. I have never been to the Côte d'Azur. When else in my life am I going to get the chance to do something like this? When else in my life am I going to be able to just hop on a train and go to the south of France? I have to take advantage of my situation. Faut que j'en profite, as they say! I'd rather be broke for the rest of my time here, eating only spaghetti, than wishing I'd gone to Cannes when I had the chance. So finally I scribbled on Emily's paper...

"YES."

Of course it turned out to be much more complicated than that, but I didn't know that at the time. What I did know was that a) Stephanie was asking Tessa if she wanted to come, so I had to get my yes in before Tessa, b) the travel agency closed at seven and we didn't get out of class on the other side of Paris until five and c) neither of us had a cell phone with us so we couldn't just call Stephanie and tell her to meet us there, we had to go all the way back to the Cité U.

So as soon as our class got out, Emily and I booked it to the Metro, which we took from Clignancourt to Gare du Nord. At Gare du Nord we were waiting and waiting for the RER B, but it never came. Finally I didn't feel like we could wait there anymore, so I told Emily I was going to try and take the 4 instead, and she decided to wait and see if the RER came. I took the 4 to Denfert-Rochereau, where I learned that the RER was on fire and that there were delays between Châtelet-Les Halles and Gare du Nord (which is where we had been). But it was fine at Denfert-Rochereau, so I got on it there and when I got off one stop later at the Cité U, Emily got off the same train. Turns out she had given up on the RER as well and taken the same route I had. We ran into the Fondation shouting Stephanie's name. She came running down to find us, as she had been on the roof and had seen us running into the Fondation. We sat around for a bit trying to find train tickets, but I was really anxious about getting to the travel agency before it closed. There were plenty of tickets online to go to Cannes, but we couldn't find any to get back. So we gave up on that and decided to go to the travel agency. James had given Emily his money and she had Stephanie's too, so we were set for that. We ran to the tram, took it to the 4, took that to the stop where the travel agency was, and made it inside around 6:45 PM. The woman already had all of Stephanie's info and just had to take my name and birthdate and add me to the reservation. We had done it! Now we just needed to buy train tickets.

This is the moment, however, when Stephanie happened to mention, "We should probably tell James," and Emily said, "You're right, James doesn't know!" This was the first I had heard of this - and we had just confirmed our reservation and paid for it in cash. Without cancellation insurance. Turns out that Stephanie, James and Emily had been planning on taking a bus tour around the Côte d'Azur. They would be staying in hotels and also on the bus, but the bus company was taking care of accommodations and everything, and they were going to go to four cities. This is what James had signed up for, and this is what he had given Emily his 170€ for. When Stephanie and Emily had gone to buy tickets on the bus, it was already full. But they had their hearts set on the Côte d'Azur, so they walked into the nearest travel agency and reserved a condo in Cannes. And nobody had been able to get in touch with Jim to ask him about it. Oops.

So that started making me really anxious, because I really don't like planning things when other people aren't on board, and I REALLY don't like spending someone else's money on something they don't know about. But there was no time to think - we had to go to the train station to try and buy tickets. We were right by Montparnasse station, so we just walked in there and got in line. We wanted to speak to a real person. It ended up taking us at least half an hour talking to an extremely patient SNCF worker. There were almost no tickets to come home when we needed to, because it was a long weekend so everyone was going away to the south to have a good time on the beach - just like us. Finally we explained that Emily and I needed to come back on Monday because we had Tuesday classes, but that Stephanie and Jim could come back on Tuesday. Also, Jim and I had 12-25 discount cards, but Emily and Stephanie didn't. We told him that he could split us up, we didn't all have to be on the same train. In the end he got it all figured out and it was upwards of a bazillion euros for all of us. It occurred to us then that we just did not have the means to pay for all of our tickets then and there. So, thanks to quick thinking on Stephanie's part, we bought the tickets home, because there were fewer of them. She said she had seen plenty of trains to go there on Saturday online, where they are also cheaper. So I paid for Jim's and my tickets, and Stephanie paid for hers and Emily's. We all ended up taking night trains, Emily and I on Monday night and Jim and Stephanie on Tuesday night. Whew.

When we got home, we decided to split up before trying to buy train tickets there, because we were all exhausted and sweaty from running around Paris all afternoon trying to make things happen. So I took a shower and put on pajamas and went to find Jim. Someone had to tell him the change of plan. When I got to his room, though, I discovered that I totally did not have the nerve to do it so I took him down to Stephanie's room and we told him together. It ended up being okay though, because Jim had not actually been very excited about spending all that time on a bus. Also, the bus trip had been 170€. Emily and Stephanie and I all ended up spending some more than that. James ended up actually paying like 35€ less. Not fair. But it did help sweeten the deal. So we were set with that. Now all we needed to do was buy the train tickets. Tiny problem though - for some reason the SNCF website chose that night to go down for maintenance. But it was okay, we got up in the morning and found tickets. Well, okay. I did. I found the trains that would be the cheapest for each person, which ended up being Emily and Stephanie on an 8h01 train and James and I pn an 8h16 train. Theirs was direct and ours stopped in Toulon where we had to change to a different one, so we were set to get there an hour later than they would.

That was Thursday morning. We still had to get through Thursday and Friday. And I had to do something else - figure out some solution to the fact that I was supposed to be teaching a class on Monday. I have a very strict boss so I was really worried about it, but it ended up being not so bad for two reason:

1. Erin is the kind of friend who is there when you need her.
2. My boss thinks Erin, Julia and I can do no wrong.

So I sent him a crazed email saying Erin was going to cover for me and please not to fire me. When I did eventually speak to him, he said, "Bobbie, don't you know you can do whatever?" Yeah. No need to worry.

Anyway, my ability to write coherent sentences is starting to fail me and this post has gotten really long - and I haven't even gotten to the actual trip yet. So I think I am going to end this post for now and pick it up later. Instead of finishing it, I am going to go to the Foire du Trône - yeah. A thousand year old carnival.

P.S. I would just like to share this website with y'all. I can't stop playing with it. It's not 100% accurate, but it does give a pretty good impression of what the world looks like to colorblind people.

Caution: Birds become aggressive in search of food (5/1/2008)

2008-05-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well I did eventually get out of the house on Tuesday afternoon, after my camera battery had charged. I walked up the hill to the bus stop. After waiting a half hour for a bus that is supposed to come every 20 minutes, I gave up and walked down the hill to the other bus stop. Of coourse I missed the bus by literally thirty seconds and also saw the first bus coming down the hill. So then I waited another 25 minutes before finally getting on the bus, an hour after I had left the house.

I should add that at this point it was no longer a beautiful day by any standard. It was cold and raining and windy and my umbrella was flying inside and out every time the wind changed. I finally got to the city center of Brighton, wishing I had any sort of coat or shoes that were not made of canvas and didn’t have holes in them. I went into the shopping center to warm up and dry off for a bit. I mostly just wandered around. Finally I left the shopping center and walked down to the beach, which was of course ten times windier and rainier than the rest of the town. But I had to try it. I mean, you can’t spend a significant amount of time in Nova Scotia without developing a certain fondness for rainy beaches. So I braved the beach and walked along it in the rain for as long as I could.

From my hiding place under the umbrella

Venturing out of the umbrella

Cold and wet!

My poor battered umbrella

Eventually I couldn’t take it any more and headed back up to the very center where the buses are. It was about seven PM by the time I got back to Kris’s house, and I’d started out at three. I was soaking wet and cold and tired. As soon as I got in, Kris’s parents started berating me for not having “rung up” so they could come get me. Jan informed me that I was going to have a hot bath (a bath!) and she made me a cup of hot minty chocolate. For those of you who know what Aero chocolate is (Canada, anyone?) it was Aero brand hot chocolate and it’s all bubbly on top and frothy and delicious. So I had a hot bath and a mug of cocoa and put on my pajamas. It was the perfect end to a rainy day. It got even better when Kevin (Kris’s dad) made “ruby murray,” which is a “Cockney rhyme” for curry. It was “Brit curry” according to Kevin, and it was delicious. There were also sammosas and pakoras and tsatsiki and rice. It was delicious, and I’m glad I ate it there instead of going out to some restaurant, because I don’t think a restaurant could have made a better meal than that. Afterwards there was Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and “football” (soccer) on the “telly.” Let’s see how many times I can use quotation marks in this post.

Wednesday morning was a lazy morning, although I did get up and have the leftover curry for breakfast. I also watched Scrubs and a bio show on John Travolta, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Oh, and Star Trek TNG. Yes. It was on. And we watched it. While eating Cheddar cheese. Yum.

Kris’s mom made burgers for what I guess can only be described as elevenses, and then Kris and I headed into to town to take care of some serious business.

- First important order of business: Kris says hello to his former coworkers at his former job.

- Second important order of business: Bobbie buys her bus ticket to the airport for way way too early on Friday morning.

- Third important order of business: Kris and Bobbie head to a shop aptly named “Zero Culture” to check out a shirt they saw in the window the other night, but it is toon expensive and neither of them buys it.

- Fourth, and most, important order of business: Kris and Bobbie get fish and chips.

Kris took me to the Brighton pier, which would have been exactly how I imagined it if I had ever bothered to imagine it. It made me think of the song Pinball Wizard, because there’s a big arcade in there: “From Soho down to Brighton, he must have played ‘em all…” Yes, well, that’s where he would have played in Brighton, for sure. Down at the end of the pier was a restaurant which Kris said had the best fish and chips, so that’s where we went. Kris showed me the Brighton way to eat fish and chips, which is that you cover your chips (fries) in salt, then vinegar, then more salt. Then you do the same to your fish. I also added lemon and tartar sauce. I don’t usually eat fish, but it was all delicious. I want more. Also I want another pasty. And more curry.

Pretty windy

English seagulls

Fish and chips!

Kris eating fish and chips

After that we came back because the day had turned cold and rainy again. We watched more Scrubs (it’s literally on all the time here) and then Kevin made bangers and mash for dinner. According to Kris and Jan he screwed it up and didn’t use the right kind of sausages or make a proper gravy, but I thought it was delicious. Maybe I’ll have to try it in a pub or something though, just to be sure. You know. Just to make sure I cover all my bases. For the purpose of research.

After that there was another football (soccer) game on, and I found myself actually paying attention to it, which is pretty uncharacteristic of me. I was pretty tired, so I may have been delusional, but I found myself thinking a) “It’s a lot like foosball,” and b) “The rules aren’t that different from basketball.” That may be because basketball is the only sport I actually have a real working knowledge of, but it may be because it’s kind of similar. Maybe?

“Talk British to me kids!” (4/29/08)

2008-05-05T14:10:00.001-07:00

Well Sunday wasn’t very eventful because I didn’t have any money, so I stayed in the dorm while Vik, Zhiying and Fang went out into the mountains. I watched LOST with James (the BU guy) and took a nap. I went down to the convenience store on campus, which is more than a convenience store but less than a grocery store, and just picked up a bunch of vegetables and chicken. When Vik, Zhiying and Fang got home, I made a stir-fry. Afterwards we went to bed pretty early - they were all exhausted from the mountains and I had to get up early to catch my flight.

Monday morning I got up at 8:30 and packed up my stuff and took a shower. Vik walked me down to the bus stop and sent me off. I was a little nervous, as I always am with buses, that I would miss the correct stop, but I did fine, changing in the city center and getting on the bus for the airport. I got all checked-in and everything and wandered around the terminal. I ended up buying Guinness “luxury fudge” which is apparently flavored with Guinness beer. I haven’t tried it yet. I went to my gate to find that my plane was delayed, so I bought a book and sat down and waited. I got a call from Kris saying he couldn’t meet me at the airport so I would have to take a train to Shoreham, the closest train station to his house. Since I had already navigated my way to and from the Dublin airport on my own, I felt pretty confident in my capabilities. As soon as I got to London Gatwick and got my bag, I bought a train ticket. It then took me about 20 minutes to find the platforms, even though they were right next to me. I went all across the airport looking for the trains and ended up where I’d started, feeling foolish and nervous that I was going to miss my train. I hurried down to the platform and jumped on the train, only realizing too late that I had gotten on the wrong one! Luckily it wasn’t too wrong, just a different destination on the same service I should have been on. So I got off after a few stops and got on the next train, which was the proper one, and got to Shoreham-by-Sea with no more difficulty. Kris and his mom were there with his mom’s car (a car!) to pick me up. They brought me back to their house where I have my own room (!) and showed me around. Kris’s mom made dinner (breaded chicken, boiled potatoes, salad with feta) and it was delicious! Afterwards Kris took me out to the center of Brighton and showed me The Pavilion and The Lanes and of course the gay area. We stopped into a couple pubs and had a couple drinks and then caught the last bus home, where we went to sleep.

My room

Tuesday morning I got up and showered and had some tiger bread, which I have never heard of before but which is delicious. When Kris got up he asked if I wanted a “cup o’ tea” to which I of course said yes, even though I don’t drink tea except sometimes herbal tea with honey when I’m sick. So far on this trip I have basically tried anything that I’ve been offered, so I had the tea. It was good! I may have to start drinking tea. After a bit, Kris walked me to “the Square” which is the central area of their suburb of Southwick. It was like Lexington Center in size, but more… English. We went into a bakery and I got a pasty. Yum! Afterwards we walked back. Kris had some errands to do so he went out to do them. I had been having some real pain in the back of my ankle (if I knew anything about anatomy I would say it’s my Achilles’ tendon but I have no idea) and I had been having trouble walking the night before and that morning, so Kris gave me a support bandage and I sat down to write this. I might go into Brighton though, to walk around and take some pictures. I can’t decide if it’s worth it or not, with the pain in my ankle, so I might just stay here and read my book. But then I would feel pathetic and lazy, especially because it’s such a beautiful day. Maybe I’ll wait until my camera battery has charged and that will be my excuse for sitting around and reading my book. Yeah. That’ll do.

Cén fáth??? (4/26/08)

2008-05-03T04:51:00.000-07:00

Didn't have wireless for quite some time. Here is an overdue post from last Saturday:

Saturday we (“we” meaning Vik, his two friends from Singapore Zhiying and Fang, and me) woke up at seven to go to the Rock of Cashel which was in County Tipperary, which was exciting because Tipperary is one of those county names that you always hear when talking about Ireland and it sounds so cute and I went there! The Rock of Cashel, which is also called Cashel of the Kings, is where the Kings of Munster chilled out for hundreds of years before those pesky Normans invaded. At some point it was given to the Church and they built a cathedral.

We got up at seven, left at eight-thirty, and got on the Bus Eirann coach to Cork at ten. It took three hours to get to Cashel, which we all used as naptime. Once we got there we stopped for sandwiches - I got a tuna melt! Gotta love Ireland. Then we walked up to the castle.

The way up

View of Cashel

Todd?

Zhiying and I

Inside the cathedral

Green!

This is known as the "Round Tower." Hmm.

Some headless bishop dude

Family fun

Me, FangTing, Vik and Zhiying

We had fun playing with Zhiying's really reflectiv sunglasses

We walked around a bit and watched a little audiovisual exhibit thing that they had, which was pretty boring. We wandered around a bit with the tour guide, who was much more interesting, but had to leave early to catch our bus back. Before doing that, though, we snuck through a fence to some big green fields and took some pictures.

View from afar

Some other little castle thing

Cows!

We took the three hour bus ride back and went grocery shopping. Fang made some noodles with curry sauce and tortellini with cream sauce for dinner. I finally got the internet to work on my laptop and made a horrible discovery.

There is something in Paris called Velib’. It is a bike rental service where you pick up a bike at any kiosk in the city and drop it off at any other one. I thought I should give it a try since I live there, and bikes are cool, and I’ve tried every oher form of transportation in the city, and everyone raves about it. So I tried it, but I couldn’t disengage the bike from the kiosk so I eventually just gave up. The thing is that they put a security charge in your bank account in case you steal the bike. Apparently they think I stole the bike (even though I never even removed it from the kiosk) and charged me 150E, which is most of the money I had for the rest of my trip. Also my phone had somehow gotten blocked, although I have since fixed it. I’m not sure what to do because the website isn’t being very helpful (there’s no section for “We think you stole our bike but we made a mistake” section because that would involve admitting a flaw in the system and the French would never do that) and I’m not in France at the moment. I might try calling them from Skype today but I really can’t afford to use my cell phone credit to call. Luckily the internet connection here is better than my own so hopefully Skype will work pretty well. Ugh.

Saturday night I was in the kitchen doing the dishes, trying to take my mind off the money issue because it was stressing me out, and there was an American guy in the kitchen talking to Fang. He was talking about his university and I asked him which university he was from in the US. He said BU! So we played the name game, and it turns out we do in fact know some of the same people - three to be exact. So we had fun talking about that and other things. Then we all went to a “party” at Vik’s friend’s place. It was pretty low-key, which I guess was disappointing to other people but was pretty much all I could handle anyway. It was mostly French people. I think I have spoken more French in Dublin than I would in the same amount of time in France. I should have studied in Dublin! Anyway, they told me my accent was good, which was nice. It’s always nice to hear stuff like that. Afterwards we came home and finally went to bed, them with plans to go on some cool day trip on Monday and me with plans to stay here and try to work out the money problem.

Things I have learned about Singapore:

-English is the official language, and most people’s first language. Many ethnic groups speak their own language as a second language, but not necessarily perfectly.
-Young people tend to speak “Singlish,” a strange combination of English and other languages. The word “damn” is used in almost every sentence to mean “very.”
-Chewing gum is illegal in Singapore.
-Singapore is very small.
-The adjective to describe someone from Singapore is Singaporean.

* “Cén fáth???” means “Why???” in Irish Gaelic.

Pionta Ghuinness, le do thoil!

2008-04-27T02:05:00.000-07:00

I was going to wait to publish this post until I had all the pictures from the other people who were there, because my camera crapped out, but I decided to just post it. So later you'll get a really weird post with just a lot of pictures of me standing in front of things.

Thursday night Vik made curry and fried fish. It was yummy. He also brought out a bottle of Chartreuse, asking if I’d ever tried it. I hadn’t, so he poured us both a little. I had a tiny bit but couldn’t really handle it. It was good though. And green.

After that we went out into the city. We ran into Julianna and Romina (the girls from work) on the street. They were off to bed. We met Lexy and Morgan, the girls we had had lunch with, at a microbrewery called Messrs Maguire. I had never been to any place like that. It was really cool. I had the house beer. It was pretty good, though I am not a beer person. But when in Rome… (oh wait, that was three months ago). Afterwards we came back and went to sleep. Vik let me have the bed! He slept on the floor. I had had three hours of sleep the night before and had been awake for 22 hours, so I didn’t argue, but I am not going to let him sleep on the floor again.

We saw a place called Eddie Rocket's. I thought that was funny.

At the pub

Vik and myself

Friday morning I got up around nine and by eleven we were in the city center. Vik took me to St Stephen’s Green, and also to this cool little commemorative area to Oscar Wilde.

St. Stephen's Green

I love tulips!

James Joyce!

Oscar Wilde!

We're both pretty saucy.

These pillars had quotes from him written on them.

After that we went to the National Gallery, which is an art museum in Dublin. I checked out the highlights, including a large exhibition on Jack B. Yeats, which was very interesting. I also saw Picasso's "Still-Life With a Mandolin," Caravaggio's "The Taking of Christ," and Vermeer's "Woman Writing a Letter."

After the National Gallery Vik walked me over to Trinity College and then went home.

Trinity College

I went in and saw the Book of Kells. A lot of fuss for a little book, but it is pretty spectacular. Afterwards I went upstairs to the “Long Room” which, as Vik said, is like being in the library at Hogwarts. Sadly, no photography allowed. Thank goodness for Google Image Search!

After Trinity College I booked it to Kilmaimham Gaol. It took me about half an hour to walk there.

On the way I passed Dublin Castle, which I skipped in order to be able to do both the jail and the Guinness Storehouse.

I also passed "Dublinia" which I chose not to experience.

I also passed this shop which I found amusing.

Finally I found my way to Kilmainham Gaol. It’s a prison where many of the leaders of the Easter Rising were kept, including Joseph Plunkett and Éamon de Valera. I took the tour, and it was very enjoyable. I can never say no to a jail-cum-museum!

This is the chapel where Joseph Plunkett and Grace Gifford were married, hours before his execution.

A cell. These were meant for one person but because of overcrowding they sometimes held up to ten men, women and children, all stuffed in together like sardines.

The Victorian-era part of the jail. They believed that light was essential to reform.

The mural that Grace Gifford painted on the inside of her cell while she was there for six months.

After Kilmainham I practically ran back to the Guinness Storehouse so I would get in before they close at five. While waiting in line, this woman started talking to me. She is a flight attendant from Lebanon, and her name is Rita. We were both traveling alone, so we did the self-guided tour together. My camera started giving me trouble, so Rita took a lot of pictures. I'll post them later. For now, here are the two pictures I did get:

A copy of the 9000-year lease signed by Arthur Guinness.

When we got to the top, we got our complimentary pints of Guinness and drank them while looking out over Dublin. We were sharing our table with two young men, one from Ontario and one from Sweden. We started talking to them (Rob and Mikael) and ended up really hitting it off. At six they told us we had to go, but we could take our pints with us. They meant we could take them down to the fifth floor bar and finish them there, but I guess we didn’t really understand that. When we got down to the coat check, the clerk was like, “You’re not supposed to have those down here but I don’t feel like opening up this door and taking them from you and taking them back upstairs, so whatever.” We ended up just walking right out with them. So now I have a souvenir pint glass stolen from the Guinness storehouse. We didn’t feel like walking around the streets of Dublin with opened containers of alcohol, so we just sat outside the Storehouse and drank them and laughed at the silly situation.

Rita wanted to go to the Temple Bar area, and we were all hungry, so we headed back towards the city center. We stopped at O’Neill’s to eat, a place that Vik told me about where you can get a dish and then as many sides as you want for no extra cost. I got the shepherd’s pie. Mmm. Afterwards we went over to the Temple Bar but quickly grew bored and I herded them back to Messrs Maguire, which is the microbrewery/pub that Vik had taken me to the night before. We just relaxed their in the comfy chairs until we couldn’t even keep our eyes open, and then they helped me find my bus stop and we bid our goodbyes. I’ll probably never see them again, but we did exchange email addresses.

I took the bus back to Vik’s and victoriously claimed the sleeping bag, for a hearty six hours of sleep. Hmmm.

* “Pionta Ghuinness, le do thoil!” means, “Pint of Guinness, please!” in Gaelic.

Fáilte!

2008-04-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

Thursday was my first day in Dublin. Wednesday night I had gone to the apartment that Carolyn and her dad and Stephen were staying in in Paris. Mike (Carolyn’s dad) made courgettes and grilled pork chops in a shallot and red wine reduction. Mmmm. And we watched South Park while we ate it. A bit incongruous, but hey, whatever. So after going home and packing it was about midnight when I finally crashed. Three and a half hours of non-sleep later, I got back up and took a shower. I made myself a bowl of spaghetti, finished packing, and talked to Mary about apartment stuff. At 5:30 I headed out and took the Metro to Porte Maillot where I took the shuttle to Paris Beauvais Airport. I got there about 8 AM and actually ran into a few girls from work who were also going to Dublin. So I stuck with them through check-in and customs. When I got through security, I saw my Couchsurfer from the few nights before! Turns out she had missed her flight Wednesday morning but didn’t want to bother me because she knew I had my own flight to catch, so she stayed with someone else. She was on her way to Stockholm.

We eventually got on our plane, and when we arrived in Dublin I parted ways with the girls from work. I followed the careful directions of my Couchsurfing host, Vik, and went outside the airport and found the bus.

I got on bus 16A and took it for about forty minutes until I got to the city center, and then took bus 10 to UCD Belfield, which is where Vik lives and goes to school. He met me after I got off the bus and helped me bring my stuff up to his room. He is the most welcoming person I think I have ever met in my life. He even cleared out a shelf for me in his room! After I dropped off my stuff we went to meet some friends of his for lunch. It rained and hailed and was sunny all in about fifteen minutes. We met his friends and went into an Irish restaurant. I had potato and leek soup and bread and butter. It was delicious! I can’t wait to sample more Irish fare.

After lunch we tried to go to Dublin Castle, but it was randomly closed for the day.

I did have a Marilyn Beyer moment when I had to explain to a little old Italian lady that the castle was closed. Luckily I speak a little more Italian than my mother and managed to explain to the woman that the castle was closed and that it would reopen the next day at 10 AM. So we wandered around the area trying to find something to do, and randomly found the Irish Revenue Museum. It was pretty odd, a little exhibition dedicated to revenue workers.

They had an exhibit of various ways people try to smuggle drugs into the country

This is a special toilet that was made to help check people's poo for drugs.

We played "Spot the Tax"

There was a funky park outside

After that we went to the Chester Beatty Library and looked at the exhibition on world religions. Then Vik and I caught the bus back to campus. He went to play soccer and I took a shower and figured out how to use my power adapter and did not figure out how to connect to the internet. So then I wrote this, and eventually I will get a chance to post it, with some pictures!

*Fáilte means “welcome” in Irish Gaelic.

Quick update

2008-04-25T16:26:00.000-07:00

I can't get the wifi here to work for my laptop so you won't get the full updates with photos until later, but I've been hangin around Dublin. Today I went to St. Stephen's Green, The National Gallery, Kilmainham Gaol, and the Guinness Storehouse. I accidentally stole a pint glass from the Guinness Storehouse. I met a Lebanese flight attendant named Rita in the line at Guinness and we did the tour together. We met some dudes from Canada and Sweden in the bar at the top and we all went out to get dinner and we went to Temple Bar and then to a pub/microbrewery. Good times were had with strangers. Tomorrow my host is taking me and his other two American friends who are staying here to the Rock of Cashel, which is supposed to be pretty cool.

That's what Amy Winehouse said

2008-04-19T01:09:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night was the Luau party - the culmination of many hours of crazy endured by Julia, Erin and myself. In the end, we pulled it off somehow.

I arrived at six to find Julia making a massive batch of coleslaw. There were a few other tutors there who had signed up to help setup, so I took them down to the unheated basement and we started putting up our "luau" decorations, which means we cut up a couple grass skirts and taped them to a table.

Soon one of the student organizations came down to set up the bar, and someone from Activ came down and told me that Vincent was looking for me. I went up to the courtyard and this half-French half-Californian dude told me that he needed me to cut up all of the onions, wash the tomatoes and lettuce, and cut the tomatoes. I do so love delegating. I got Ashley and Romina and Mariana to do the washing. I cut the onions and Erin cut the tomatoes. I spent a good portion of the beginning of the party delegating tasks while slicing onions. It was pretty funny.

By the time I was done slicing enough onions for a small army, I was freezing. I walked over to the barbecue to get warm and I asked them if I could do anything to help. They handed me the flippy thing and left me to my own devices. So I barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers for 200 people for the rest of the night. It was really fun, but I think I burned all of my fingers and my hair still smells like hamburgers.

"But I don't even know how to use a George Foreman!"

"I am the king of the grill."

Me and all the barbecue dudes

Left to right: Guy with weird glass ball, Julia, Erin, Frenchifornia (Vincent), our boss Emery.

This is funny cause Vincent is actually taller than Emery.

We pulled it together

"BFFs from life," as Erin says.

All in all we had a good time and the party went off without a hitch. After cleaning up a lot of the food area, I finally went home around 11, having decided that at this point I could let someone else do some of the work. Julia ended up getting stranded on this side of Paris and sleeping on my floor.

This weekend is gonna be pretty low-key for me, seeing as I feel like my throat has been hit by a truck. Good times.

"Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing / It's so lonely round the fields of Athenry..."

2008-04-15T07:57:00.000-07:00

So, what's been going on lately?

School next year

Let's see... I was "enthusiastically" accepted into the linguistics 4+1 Masters program at Tulane (which reminds me, I need to send a graduate application to the SLA....). I am still crazily planning this party for the school I work at. That happens tomorrow. I had a huge assignment, basically a take-home exam, due today that I spent most of the night working on and didn't finish. My professor gave the whole class an extension until Friday so hopefully that will be enough time. Mary and I are still searching for an apartment (and I am searching for a summer subletter... anyone planning on doing relief work in New Orleans this summer? Want to live in my bedroom-to-be?). I registered for classes. My tentative schedule for next semester is:

ANTH 329: The Nature of Language
ANTH 331: Introduction to Historical Linguistics
ASTR 100 : Descriptive Astronomy (yeah yeah, I haven't kept up with my science requirements, quelle surprise)
FREN 595: Senior Seminar - "Ici et Ailleurs" (I don't exactly know what this means yet, but it ought to be good)
FREN 621: History of French Language
ITAL 203: Intermediate Italian

That courseload looks insane after two semesters in a row of taking only four courses per semester. I probably won't be able to handle taking ALL of them. I'd like to take History of Language with Poe, but if I can get my Grammaire et Histoire de la Langue class from last semester to transfer as FREN 621, I might not, just in order to lessen my courseload. But I need to take at least one 600-level linguistics class next semester, and FREN 621 qualifies. Good times. And astronomy? We'll see how that goes. It can't be worse than Physical Geology, and I managed to finagle an A- in that class, though to this day I don't understand how.

Musical escapades

Last Tuesday night I went to see the Dropkick Murphys at le Bataclan. Carolyn took the train in from Rennes and she and Vaune and I went to the concert. I made myself a Boston shirt and I wore my Red Sox hat.

You have to admit, it's pretty impressive given my complete inability to draw, and the difficulty of drawing with marker on ribbed cloth.

Boston chic

We got there pretty early and made friends with the roadies who loved us because we are from the Boston area. The first band (called Deadly Sins) came on and the singer was like, "We're from Boston," and Carolyn and I screamed like crazy, and she asked us if we were from Boston and we said yes and then she loved us from then on, even though we're from the suburbs. Because of course, as she said, "We're all f***in' family!"

The first band, Deadly Sins

Then the second band came on. It was Against Me! who are apparently pretty well-known, but it's not really the kind of music I listen to. I liked them though. At that point I just kind of felt like taking a break until it was Dropkicks time.

Against Me!

By the time the Dropkicks came on, the place was packed. We were right right up at the front because we'd gotten there so early. I was right up against the metal thing that separates the audience from the stage. People started moshing and getting crazy and I ended up just kind of squished up against the metal thing unable to move. People started surging up and it was really painful, I kept getting elbowed in the head and kicked and stuff. I know that's normal for a concert like that, but it's not the kind of concert I usually go to. Crowd-surfers kept getting confused because I was shorter than the mass of guys around me, so they didn't see me and would kind of sit on my head as they got pulled over the barrier. The most priceless moment was when I realized that person involuntarily squashed up against me from behind was, in fact, NOT Carolyn. When I looked behind me and saw that, I had a kind of stricken look on my face. I think one of the stage roadies must have seen it, because he came down and asked me if I would like to go sit upstairs on the balconies. I must have looked pretty pathetic down there - I know I had a look of pain on my face and also I just looked pretty scared of all those big guys. But I told him, "No, I'm from Boston. I can handle it." There was no way I was going to give up my awesome spot. Also there was this dude next to me who I have since named Samuel who was very respectful and cool and we kind of took care of each other, teaming up to keep people from killing us. If it weren't for him I would probably have taken that guy up on his offer to pull me out of there.

Vaune rocking out

Best friends since age 12, representing Boston at a Dropkicks concert in Paris. It doesn't get better than this.

I'm so glad I stayed up front. For one of their last songs, the band had all the girls in the place come up onstage. At this point I had kind of started to channel my brother and was rockin out. I got up onstage and when Ken Casey (one of the singers, and the only original member still in the band) came around and sang to all the girls, he put his hand on the top of my head and kind of shook my hat around and I stuck out my tongue. The second time he came around he TOOK MY HAT AND PUT IT ON HIS HEAD AND SANG THE REST OF THE SONG WITH MY HAT ON HIS HEAD. And then he threw it back to me. And I caught it. That was by far the coolest concert-going moment of my life.

As the girls were being shuffled offstage Vaune and I took this picture. You can't really tell - BUT THIS IS A PICTURE OF US ONSTAGE WITH THE DROPKICK MURPHYS RIGHT AFTER KEN CASEY WORE MY HAT. This is legendary.

Afterwards we stumbled back home, exhausted, bruised, dehydrated and, in Vaune's words, drenched in "the sweat of a thousand Gauls." To help you understand, this is what my shirt looked like at the end of the night:

People

I saw Gigi (= Madame Girondel, my high school French teacher, family friend, and all-around extraordinary lady) on Friday. I pulled myself out of bed at 7 AM and managed to meet her and the LHS exchange students at the Musée d'Orsay at 9. I'm really glad I went, because I managed to sneak in free with their guided tour, and I had never even been before. The tour was really cool and interesting, and I just kind of side-hugged Gigi throughout the entirety of it. Claire J was there too so I got to chill with her a bit. I will probably also go to Chartres with them next Monday, hopefully with Carolyn in tow.

Last night Emily Holland stayed with me. She went to my high school and I haven't seen her since, and then she came into Paris this weekend because she's on vacation (she's living in Dijon for the semester) and she wanted to see Gigi. She needed a place to stay so she crashed with me. It was really really cool. I had a lot of work to do, but I couldn't help talking with her anyway. We reminisced about high school, and people we didn't even remember, and how I was a crazy person in high school (yes, folks, even more so than I am now) and all that jazz. It was really interesting to reminisce about high school with someone who I didn't hang out with then. And I don't know why not - clearly I was missing out. We had a really fun time just eating pizza and sitting in my room and reading the Swedish gossip magazine that Vaune brought me in January.

I've met so many cool people in Paris. First I got to know Vaune and the other people from my Tulane group. Then I met Alan at the Sorbonne. I met Julia through work (and through Erin), and I met Amy through Julia. I feel like I don't have enough time to hang out with these people as much as I want to. And now in the past week I have met even more people - Jim & Tim (roommates with rhyming names... how priceless is that? And the real question - is pricelessness quantifiable?) and then through them all of the people who wander in and out of their room (Becca, Kait, Stephanie, etc). And I only have a month and a half to get to know these people and then I may never see them again. I know I have a certain degree of wanderlust and that's how I end up with so many "short-term friends," people who I meet somewhere (Menotomy, Ste-Anne, Tufts, France...) and become close with and then I have to leave them. It's also why I don't have as many friends at Tulane, because I can't seem to stay grounded there. I love meeting new people, but it's kind of sad when it happens this late in the game.

So that's my über-long blog post. Tomorrow is the school party, and I have a CSer coming to stay. Then I have to finish up my assignment, then it will be the weekend, and then going to Chartres with Gigi and Carolyn, then working for two days, then off to Dublin, Brighton and St. Andrews!!

1... 2... 3...

2008-04-13T01:45:00.000-07:00

Can we all say, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY VAUNE!"

Vaune's blog, where you can leave her a happy birthday comment.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

2008-04-08T01:53:00.000-07:00

Well things have been a little crazy lately since I volunteered to help plan my school's end of the year party. Julia, Erin and I are doing it, and it's taking up a lot more time than I ever expected, mostly because we've kind of been given free reign. It's going to be a luau party, sort of. Just kind of beach-themed in general. We're planning on having a volleyball net, a limbo contest, a hula hoop contest, a tug-o-war, and other things that I can't remember. Oh, and a margarita bar. We got together and planned all of this out and decided how much of which things we needed and what we needed to delegate. The delegating has come down to me, because I am the queen of writing emails. So far I have written and read a total of (yes, I am about to count them)... 88 emails (most of which are since Sunday) regarding the planning of this party. I am about to write several more trying to make the associations at the school think it was their idea to help me out and get all the food and alcohol and sound equipment for the party. I sent a message to a girl on Couchsurfing who wanted to stay with me, explaining to her in a numbered list the reasons why I wouldn't be able to host her. She responded, "Thank you for being so detailed. Are you by any chance working as a teacher?" My boss expressed surprise that by the end of my pages-long e-mail to him detailing our plans for this party that my English had not, in fact, deteriorated into gibberish. Julia even sent me this e-mail after my most recent mass mail to all of our tutors telling them when they should schedule their class and also how many volunteers we still needed for which tasks (click to enlarge, as they say):

So I've been keeping pretty busy. I have also been trying to plan my 4+1 Masters in linguistics, find a place to live in New Orleans next year, figure out my summer job situation, etc. But I'm loving Paris, and I have amazing friends here. I am going to be sad to leave them - although of course I am going to be really happy to spend next year at Tulane with the Tulane people who I have become friends with while here. I am even going to be sad to leave my job. I'm finally starting to enjoy it, probably because I am finally starting to have groups of students who sign up for my classes every week, who enjoy having me as a tutor, and who I enjoy having conversation classes with. It makes me think. About teaching.

Well anyway, I should go now and write some more emails. Here are some pictures to entertain you.

Erin got me "gypsy flowers" one day because I was having a bad day. Please also note the array of other necessary items on my bedstand (watter bottle, can opener, headphones, metro ticket...):

This is Julia. She's doing something called slacklining. It's kind of like tightrope walking, but not with a tight rope. With a slack line. Genius.

Paris weather is insane. On the day this photo was taken, it was sunny, then hailing, then raining, then sunny. In this picture, the sun is shining on those buildings, which oddly have palm trees in front of them, and then behind them it looks like the sky is about to open up into the gates of hell. The picture can't really capture how bizarre this looked.

And since I started writing this post, my email count has gone up to 90.

I am basically McGruff. If you don't know who McGruff is, you should be ashamed of yourself.

2008-03-31T14:38:00.000-07:00

I fought crime today. Really. I did.

I was standing in the RER (Paris's rapid subway line) and this guy was jostling me. This is not strange because guys are always jostling in the Metro. He was really giving me trouble though. I was trying to move out of the way so this girl could get off and this guy basically blocked me and pushed me forward into her so she couldn't really get off. I was trying to frantically to move out of her way because I know what it's like to be trying to get off the subway and not be able to get through to the door, but this guy kept pushing me. I tried to move but I felt a tug on my bag, I figured his bag was stuck on my bag or something. Keep in mind that last night I ended up in my friend's room, the only non-Russian person there, playing cards til 4 AM, and sleeping on Julia's floor in a sleeping bag. I was kind of in a haze. So this guy pushed me and then squished past me and got off the train. I'm not quite sure how my brain put all of this together in that state, but the tugging feeling on my bag and the flash of green as he got off the train (my wallet is green) prompted me to look in my purse. Which was wallet-less. I freaked out for a second, and a few things went through my head very quickly.

1. Resignation. "Crap, this guy took my wallet and now he's gone and now I have to replace everything in it."
2. Laziness. "I really do not want to go through all of that hassle."
3. Indignation. "Why should I have to go through such a frustrating process just because some jerk thought it was okay to practice his less-than-refined pickpocketing skills on me?"

Some stupid adrenaline-filled part of my brain took over, and before I knew what I was doing I pushed through people (shouting "Excuse me" because I was too freaked out by what I was doing to remember French), made it out of the train before the doors closed, and chased the man. I literally just ran after this man as if chasing criminals is part of my daily schedule. Now I realize that chasing down the man who stole your wallet is potentially a bad idea, but this guy was pretty harmless. Anyway I just ran after him, and he didn't realize that I'd seen him and followed him, so he was just walking. So before he got on the escalator, I stopped him. I was in this weird, sleep-deprived, adrenaline-charged alternate reality where I chase criminals, and I just said to him, in English, almost yelling, very quickly, "EXCUSEMECANIPLEASEHAVEMYWALLETBACK." I think yelling in English confused him because he was just like, "Huh...." and I saw that he had it under his arm and was trying (badly) to hide it under a newspaper so I just grabbed it and gave him a look and walked away. I was surprised that he just gave it up so easily but looking back on it, I must have looked kind of insane because my hair was a mess and I was really angry, and the police are pretty easy to access in Paris. I'm guessing he was just relieved that I didn't try to call the po-po. I should have. Woulda served him right.

Anyway then I had to wait for the next train and I was all pumped up with adrenaline (which I'm not used to outside of anaphylactic episodes) and I was shaking and freaking out, even though it was a pretty unremarkable moment, not scary or anything. But the adrenaline that had allowed me to make the uncharacteristic decision to chase this man (I don't even make them take back my food at restaurants when they bring me the wrong thing) was still in my system and it just all felt very weird.

Afterwards Erin came over and we went to our tutor meeting at the school where we work and along with Julia tried to plan our next event, but of course almost none of the other tutors wanted to listen to us or cooperate or help, so it just ended up being very frustrating. But our boss did request that we re-enact the theft and recovery of my wallet. Ashley and some other girl played the train doors, Vaune played the girl trying to get out of the train, and Julia played the thief. I played me. It was pretty funny.

Just some things

2008-03-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

I've been productive today/recently. Here are some things that have been going with me.

1. My good friend Mary, who is a senior this year but applied to Tulane and Loyola for law school, will probably stay in New Orleans next year and maybe we will live in this apartment. With a cat. Purr.

2. I interviewed for the job in Philly. Haven't heard anything yet. Probably won't for a while. If I don't get it, I may only spend June at home (and in Philly, to visit) and then go to New Orleans in July and move in and find a job (Whole Foods, anyone?).

3. I might do the French Department's 4+1 Masters program. I would really like a) to have a Masters degree at the age of 21 and b) to live in New Orleans some more and experience Tulane some more. What with the hurricane and the year abroad, I feel a little cheated of my New Orleans Dream. Thoughts?

4. I just bought a one-way ticket to Dublin. I'm gonna try to do Ireland then England (specifically Brighton) then Scotland (specifically St. Andrews to see Kathryn N) at the end of April/beginning of May. In regards to this, I took time off from my job and also gave notice - I am going to stop working there in mid-May, mostly because I have to close my bank account down 15 days before I actually leave, because I then have to come back and do some other thing. I don't quite understand it myself.

I think that's about it for now. Who knew I would be so productive today.

Tonight I am going to the Lapin Agile with Erin and her dad. I'm looking forward to it.

"Elle est bostonienne!"

2008-03-19T06:05:00.000-07:00

Last night was the “event planning meeting” for our next event at the school where I work. Julia, Erin and myself are in charge… oh the irony. Our decided theme was Olympic Games, and we started to come up with activities. Our boss also tasked us with planning a team-building tutor meeting. Trust falls, anyone? Anyway, this meeting quickly deteriorated into “Inappropriate Story Time,” “Make Your Boss Cringe Time,” and “You Three Take Over Because I Don’t Want to Go Tonight Time.” Meaning that then Julia, Erin and I were left in charge of the English Department’s St Patrick’s Day celebration. So our boss gathered all the tutors, told them to give attendance to us at the end of the night, and sent everyone off in different directions. One group of people thought we were going to Mouffetard, but some guy who had supposedly “planned” the evening said we were going to Butte aux Cailles. I didn’t know where that was, so I trusted him when he said it was near Tolbiac and just a short walk from Porte d’Italie. I called Erin and Julia, who were stuck behind which large groups of lost French guys, and told them where to go. Half an hour later, we got there. It was not a particularly long walk from Tolbiac, and Tolbiac is not a particularly long walk from Porte d’Italie, but combined it was way too long a walk to try and make with 300 students and expect them to stay together. Oh well.

Once we got there everyone split up and went into different bars. I actually spent most of the night standing out on the street making sure people didn’t sneak away to Mouffetard, and just kind of pretending I knew what I was doing. At one point I also convinced a guy to give me his pizza. That was the highlight of the night. At ten, I gathered up as many attendance sheets as I could find, gave them to my boss who had randomly showed up, and booked it. Vaune and I walked back to Tolbiac and headed home. When I got home, I had this e-mail in my inbox:

Chère Mademoiselle ----------,

J'ai bien reçu votre lettre et les réponses au questionnaire. Votre candidature nous intéresse.
Je vous demande de bien vouloir m'envoyer un Curriculum Vitae. D'autre part il se trouve que madame D, la directrice de notre établissement part pour Paris ce jeudi et qu'elle souhaite vous rencontrer.

Seriez-vous libre les jours et heures suivants? :
Dimanche 23 mars avant le déjeuner ou à 18 h 30
Lundi 24 mars toute la journée
Mercredi 26 mars à 18h30

Je vous prie deme faire savoir vos possibilités. Ensuite monsieur R, notre directeur adjoint vous confirmera le rendez-vous et vous dira à quel endroit à Paris , madame D vous rencontrera.

Which means :

“Dear Ms. ----------,

I have receieved your letter and your responses to the questionnaire. Your application interests us. Please send me your CV. Moreover, it just so happens that Madame D, the director of the school is leaving for Paris this Thursday and she would like to meet you.”

The rest is just “Let us know when you’re free, etc etc etc.” The point is that even though I am not French, they still want to meet me, so that’s a good sign. I’m nervous though, because when I first read the email I thought it was next weekend, and now I look at it, it’s actually this weekend. So soon! I’m worried that my French isn’t good enough. We’ll see.

I also got a letter asking me to send thank you notes to the donors who made my scholarships possible. I didn't know I had received any scholarships. I have sent an email to the scholarship office. I still haven't heard anything. I'll keep you updated.

Today is Wednesday, which means I am exhausted. I woke up at 6:30, showered and dressed, booked it to Clignancourt for my eight AM class, skedaddled back to the FEU for some pasta (which was bad) and hot cocoa (which was good). Then I went to my 11:30 class at Reid Hall. Now I am back here, exhausted, eating a grilled cheese sandwich that tastes slightly of death thanks to whatever vague substance was burnt onto the stove. One more class to go (all the way over at Clignancourt). Then my crazy day is over.

Déjà vu

2008-03-17T06:24:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in the office of a foreign language department in an institute of higher education. My boss has gone out for coffee with a colleague and I have been left here to answer the phones. This feels extremely familiar.

Of course, the foreign language is English (not French) and the institute of higher education is a computer science school (not an American university). My boss is E, not Jeanny. And to be fair to Jeanny, she would only leave me alone for her classes and her lunch break. And I had to do a lot more when Jeanny was gone than answering the phone. Especially when she took the whole day off... Managing all of the stressed out people who come into the French department at Tulane needing Jeanny is not easy. Luckily I can delegate, and have memorized my lines: "Jeanny isn't here right now/today. She's at class/at lunch/out of town. She'll be back in a few minutes/in an hour/tomorrow. No, I cannot let you into her office." Ah, I miss it. I am oddly looking forward to my work-study next year - Jeanny said she'd take me back.

Anyway, my one student didn't show up for class today so now I am sitting in my boss's office, hoping he will come back from coffee having decided he doesn't have anything for me to do.

"Oh my God! A talking muffin!"

2008-03-11T01:58:00.000-07:00

Just to keep you all updated on things that are happening:

-My neighbor Marc came back for a few days to take some exams and we hung out and it was awesome but now he's gone and my life is sadder for it :-(

-I've been starting to really enjoy some things that I used to hate. Most significantly: the city of Paris, and my job. Maybe more on that later.

-I have a Couchsurfer here from Australia. It's been a good time. Last night we watched Flight of the Conchords and compared Kiwi and Aussie accents and determined that the American English equivalent of the Australian word "bogan" is "white trash," although without all of the negative connotations. But maybe with some of them.

-My vacation week is over. All I did was work, but it was nice not to go to class. Class starts again today. Good times.

Okay well I have a little time before Méthodes et outils pour la linguistique française, so I'll write about why I'm starting to like my job. Maybe tomorrow I'll write about why I'm starting to like Paris - it's a little more complicated.

It's just that lately I've been having some really good classes. Even if some of the guys don't say anything or they whine and complain about every single aspect of the class, there are always some guys who start to get into it once you get them to talk. I've had a few classes recently where my students have been giving me positive feedback and it's really nice. A few weeks ago I had a Louvre class and only one guy showed up because they all had exams the next day, so it was just me and this guy and we went to the Louvre and it was a little awkward but I showed him my favorite parts and then we went and looked at the Napoleon III apartments which I hadn't seen yet, and we actually talked the whole time and I was pretty bored but it seems like he had a relatively good time, because afterwards when we were walking back to the Metro he was telling me how some of his teachers are just tired all the time (well so am I!) and don't talk and don't engage their students and that he won't sign up for those teachers' classes again but how this class was better because I actually engaged him. And that was nice.

Then last week I had a "fun" class where we just sat around and talked, and anyone who has ever sat around and talked with me knows that I can get very animated, and occasionally even amusing. By the end of the class my students were asking when my next class was and asking me to create classes at times when they are free to sign up for them. So I did! I made a poker class for this Friday, and they are going to teach me how to play poker (not for money!). So that was also pretty gratifying.

Finally, a few days ago, I had a reading class and, again, I got pretty animated and just had fun, and when I am having fun they start to have fun. That one was the best, because a few of the guys were just really getting into the conversation, and when it was time to go I told them that the class is over, and they were all saying things like, "Well, we don't have to go quite yet... We have some time..." Of course I didn't want to stay, so we all left, but still. Gratifying.

Last night we had a tutor meeting where our boss yells at us and we plan events. Except he's very pleased with us, and someone else is planning our St. Patrick's Day event. I volunteered to help plan the big end-of-the-year party and then Erin did, too. So that will be a lot of fun, too, I think. Afterwards a few of us went out for beers with our boss, which we charged to the school because obviously it was "un brainstorming." So all in all, things are going well with the job. My students like me, my boss likes me, and I like my paycheck. All is well.

Okay, I must to class. (No, I did not forget to write "go." I was doing that weird Shakespeare-esque way of saying you must go somewhere without using the "go." Because I'm that cool.)

P.S. I can't stop listening to KT Tunstall.

Stupid Fondation

2008-03-05T03:33:00.000-08:00

The internet is out at the Fondation this morning - I am posting from work. I woke up at ten and the power was out. I needed to take a shower but of course it was pitch black in the showers. I did it anyway, and went back to my room. I started getting dressed and then the power came back on so I tried to blow-dry my hair. The power went out again while I was blow-drying, so then I was left with half-dry funky hair. Later it came on again and I was fine. Of course, somehow the administration of the Fondation still hasn't figured out that when the power goes out, the internet does, too, and you have to turn it back on. Whoo.

So anyway I came to work 45 minutes early and here I am, blogging from the English department of a computer science school.

Some letters I have written...

2008-03-04T01:18:00.000-08:00

Dear RATP Tramway,

Please run more often than every 15 minutes during weekday afternoons. I rely on you. I do not like running to work wondering if you are going to be the reason I get fired. Also - I beat you to Porte d'Italie. Take that, sucker.

Dear Asinine French Men,

Yes, I am wearing a tank top. I know this seems weird to you since French people feel that it is necessary to wear 800 layers every day. But no, I am not cold. Stop shouting out stuff like, "J'ai froid pour vous!" and "Tu n'as pas froid habillée comme ça, Madame?!" Your leers are not appreciated (and I am not a Madame). If I were COLD I would put on the COAT that is HANGING OVER MY ARM. But I happen to have just run from Cité U to Porte d'Italie because the damn tram was too slow (see above). So I'm not cold. Leave me alone. Also - asking someone if they are cold is not even a remotely successful way to hit on them.

Dear My Students,

I am in charge. We are going to see the movie that I have chosen, and we are taking the route that I have chosen. Your ridiculous whining is not going to change that, so shut up. I have just run here and been shouted at by idiotic French men (see above). I am not in the mood for whiny children. Also - guy with the big hair: We are not on a date. Stop trying to make meaningful eye contact.

LOVE, BOBBIE.

Christ.

Yesterday was a long day.

Un petit message

2008-03-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

Dear French Guys Who I Do Not Know,

Please stop being creepy stalkers.

Thanks.

Love,
B

Il y a longtemps que je t'aime, jamais je ne t'oublierai...

2008-02-26T05:50:00.000-08:00

Alright, back to keeping up regularly. Where did I leave off?

Friday morning I picked up Mom and Dad at Charles de Gaulle airport, which was magically easy given that we had no way of getting in contact with each other and that their flight was not listed on the arrivals board. We went back to their hotel, which was adorable. Mom wasn't feeling well, so she took a nap and Dad and I went around the area, scoping out neighborhoods and finding a grocery store (for Kleenex and chips) and a Starbucks (for tea and Wifi). We brought the tea back to Mom and discussed plans for the evening and then I went home.

Erin wanted to meet the Beyer parents, so we all met at the Fondation at 6:30 and went to Nenuphar, which is one of my favorite restaurants, and whose name, as I have just learned, is the name of the European white water lily. We had lots of yummy Thai food and then parted ways.

When I went home I heard a cat crying outside. Turns out it was stuck in a window-well in the basement, somehow. I went down to the basement and heroically saved it by... opening the window. Very difficult and strategic. Then it was in the basement, so we had to get it out. A couple of girls and I brought it outside but also decided that it probably wasn't a stray. No ticks, no fleas, no mites... and it came when I snapped my fingers. It was also clean and neither fat nor starved. So I brought it up to my room (very much against Fondation rules) and gave it some tuna and water and brought it back outside. I think it's still out there. Maybe I'll bring it some more tuna.

Clandestine cat

Saturday morning we all slept in, and I met Mom and Dad at their hotel so we could go to lunch. We went to Le Marivaux, which was near the hotel. They didn't have any plans of what to do, and I didn't really know either, so I just kind of threw out there the only thing I could think of that I hadn't done yet and wanted to do, which was to visit the Père-Lachaise cemetery. We were all a little tired and nobody had any better ideas so we hopped on the Métro and went. It wasn't that far. It was pretty cool. We went to Jim Morrison's grave first, of course. It was just a normal tombstone and such, but what was interesting were all the things people had thrown on it - there were notes, written on paper or metro tickets, flowers, photographs, and even a pack of cigarettes strewn across the grave so that Jim can have some smokes in the afterlife.

Me and Jimmy. I should start of collection of photographs of myself hanging out with famous dead people in Parisian cemeteries. I am sad looking at this picture because all that lovely hair is gone.

Afterwards we checked out the graves of some of the cemetery's other famous residents, including Sarah Bernhardt, Edith Piaf, Molière, Héloïse and Abelard and Oscar Wilde. I think my favorite was Oscar Wilde's tomb, which had an angel on it that almost looked Native American, and people had kissed the gravestone and written all sorts of messages on it in lipstick. The sign asking people not to deface the grave was ignored, and I think Oscar Wilde would have liked it that way.

Héloïse et Abelard

Sarah Bernhardt

Oscar Wilde

Mom kissing Oscar Wilde's grave

Edith Piaf. And Mom. And me. And my hair.

Mom and I

You can read more (of the same) and see (all of the same) pictures in my dad's new travel blog, created for this trip.

I had to get home and do laundry, so I did. I think I also hung out with Marc that night, in the lounge downstairs in the Fondation, lying upside-down on the couch with our legs up on the back and our heads hanging down on the ground, laughing as the blood rushed to our heads and we couldn't stand it anymore.

Sunday was brunch day! Of course I never eat brunch foods, but it just seemed appropriate that we should go to brunch at the American diner while my parents are visiting me in Paris. Rachel DeCuir was going to meet us for brunch, but her flight from Barcelona got diverted to Lille. She lives in Lille, so this would have been a good thing, except that she had left some things in my room the previous weekend so that she would not have to lug them around Barcelona. They were things like her coat, her subway pass and her homework, so she really needed them back. So she had to get back to Paris, but didn't make in time for brunch.

Brunch was fabulous. I had toast, a New Mexican omelette (DELICIOUS AND HUGE), three pancakes, two cups of coffee and a cup of orange juice. Oh, and a zillion homefries. Rachel managed to meet us just after brunch, and we walked around the Marais and found Victor Hugo's house. Afterwards Rachel and I went back to my room and she found a train back to Lille and hung out until she had to go to the station.

Sunday night was Au Lapin Agile night. I got a little dressed up (just a little!) and met my parents at the Metro stop. Or rather, I meant to meet my parents at the Metro stop and in fact saw them get on the train at Madeleine and ran into their car and surprised them. We found the place no problem and waited until nine and went in. I had had a cup of black coffee and was feeling extremely sick as I remembered why I never drank coffee before coming to France.

They brought us Cerises Lapin Agile which was some sort of cherry drink that smelled like bread and tasted like... cherries. Eventually the show started. It was a bunch of people sitting around a table singing. At first I thought, "Is this it?" But after a few minutes I started to really enjoy myself, especially when they played songs I knew. Mom and I did the little dance that we would do at Ste-Anne during the chorus of "Champs-Elsyées". One of the singers almost laughed out loud and asked me later where I learned it. The only other song that I knew was "À la claire fontaine," which is always lovely to hear, and everyone sang along with the chorus, which is where the title of this post comes from.

We left around 11:30. I was still feeling pretty sick on the way home, but still went over to my neighbor Marc's room because he was moving out on Monday, and we stayed up far too late, but it was worth it. He's moving to Delaware. Meaning I will never see him again. Because really, is anything or anyone actually worth going to Delaware for? But we had a good time, although combining that with not feeling well lead to basically not sleeping. Which was unfortunate, because I was meeting Mom at 9:15 on Monday morning to accompany her to INJA just in case the people she met and had to speak to didn't speak English. But I guess I must have looked pretty bad because once we were there she suggested I go home and take a nap before lunch. So I waited until she was talking to the woman she was meeting with (who spoke perfect English) and I headed home. Naptime galore, plus I got to say goodbye to my neighbor again. Also got to see Vaune for a bit, which was nice because even though we live in the same building, now that we don't have the exact same schedule we don't really see each other that much anymore... and I am accustomed to having Vaune in my life! So I caught her up on my life lately, and then headed out to lunch in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Lovely area... if you're rich. But lunch was delicious and it was nice to eat some really good food. I love going out to eat. I really do. But I don't usually do it because I can't afford it, and my most consumed foods are: 1) muesli and yogurt, 2) spaghetti and 3) salad. And snacks... but I don't eat a lot of meat because it's cheaper not to buy meat, and I don't eat large portions, and I don't eat dessert. So it's been lovely going out to eat, but I'm glad it's just temporary, because I've gotten used to my simple diet and all this rich food is almost too much to handle.

After lunch Mom and I went to Place d'Italie and I got a haircut. They cut it much shorter than I wanted, and I don't love it. But it is "très French" and "très trendy" and I am getting used to it I suppose, although French and trendy are not two adjectives that generally describe me, nor do I want them to be. And this woman, to whom I clearly explained what I wanted, basically stole a year's worth of my hair. But I am hoping it will grow on me - no pun intended. Heh heh heh... I haven't really been able to get a good picture of it, but here are a few tries. Of course, I am hiding the back and sides from you because they are the bad parts.

Unhappy about hair

Feeling closer to apathy than sadness...

Most accurate photo (you can see a little bit of the weirdness on the side/back)

Anything is okay if you can make a funny face

Last night we met Carolyn and her mother and sister in the Marais (where they are staying) and went to a falafel restaurant. God that's good, as they say (in Sweeney Todd). I guess in Sweeney Todd they are talking about humans, though. I prefer falafel. After dinner Carolyn accompanied me back to the Fondation to get her stuffed animal and glasses which she left here last time she stayed here. I was supposed to bring them to dinner but the whole not sleeping thing had addled my brain a bit. We caught up a bit and chatted and then she left and it was bedtime for me. Which brings us to today, a day that so far has involved class, Fritos, and running into Amy W in the RER. And writing this post. Which is way longer than I thought it would be. Which I suppose is why I have to update more often, so that I don't end up with these extremely long and overly detailed ramblings.

Busy as a B

2008-02-21T10:29:00.000-08:00

Okay so it's been kind of crazy lately, but in a good way.

Last Thursday night, Erin stayed over here because she had a flight out of Orly the next day and I was already borrowing her air mattress for a girl from CouchSurfing. So Erin slept here Thursday night and left at like 6:30 AM. Friday night I had to teach a class at the Louvre, and eight guys were signed up for it. Rachel, a friend from Ste-Anne who needed a place to stay in Paris on her way from Lille to Normandy, was supposed to arrive that night, so I invited her to join us. In the end, only one guy showed up and I had to awkwardly take him around the Louvre. Rachel and Jane arrived at the Louvre and left again before I ever got there. It was all pretty lame.

Eventually Rachel and Jane showed up around 10:30ish I guess. I was pretty exhausted so we went to bed, with Rachel and I squishing into my bed and Jane sleeping on the air mattress.

The next morning they, too, left disgustingly early and I stayed in bed for a bit. I got up and showered and such, and around 11:30 Thibault Holcombe, another friend from Ste-Anne who I haven't seen since my last summer there and is living in Amiens, texted me to say that he and his French girlfriend were at the Louvre and would I like to come meet them. So I did! It was really great to see Thibault. All we really did was look for shoes, first for his girlfriend and then for him, but it was still fun. We also went to Subway.

And then took a picture in front of McDonald's just to emphasize American fast-food presence in France. Except fast-food in France is neither cheap, nor fast, nor delicious, so I don't know why people like it.

After a bit I was exhausted so I went home and took a nap. In the evening, I got a text from Amy Wynkoop, who I had met the previous weekend at a party at a bar, saying she really just wanted to spend some time with someone and would I meet her. I had nothing else going on and she's a cool cat so I said yes. We're both poor, so getting a beer was a no, but I had some cheese and she got a baguette and we sat on the Champs-Elysées eating baguette and cheese and freezing our asses off. Turned out she'd had a pretty horrible twenty-four hours for a lot of reasons, mostly having to do with people she cared about letting her down. So it makes sense that she would want to spend time with someone she doesn't know very well. So then we came back to my room and made a salad and drank hot chocolate and watched Family Guy. She just barely missed the last Metro, but it was no problem... because I still had Erin's air mattress! So yet another person slept in my room. The next we just kind of lazed around, although we did make a trip to the boulangerie and pooled our change to get a loaf of home-made complet bread, which is whole-grain. We found some cheese that had been mispriced in our favor and got it and went back to my building and ate pasta and bread and cheese. Then we watched The 40-Year-Old Virgin because Amy hadn't seen it, and afterwards she left.

I thought my cultivating-of-new-friendships was done for the day, but I was wrong. I walked past my neighbor's open door and waved, and he invited me in for an apple. His name is Marc and he's French but lived in America for a long time and has no accent in English, so I always forget that he's French until he doesn't understand a word I say. It's plays with your head - it's pretty awesome. I ended up staying in there trying weird snacks until Rachel and Jane showed up around 11:30 PM, back from Normandy and staying w/ me again. Again, Rachel and I squished and Jane slept on the air mattress. The next day, they got up early and went to see some touristy stuff, and Jane went to the airport. Rachel came back and we watched Family Guy, and then I had to go to work (meaning I had to take some students to see Juno, which was amazing). Rachel took a nap and later went to Gentilly to have gumbo with Erin and Veronique. After the movie I rushed back to the Fondation because our old Translation professor, Tatjana Silec, was coming over for dinner. Brennan made pasta al fredo, and it was delicious. We had a good time. Afterwards, I took some of the extra wine and went over to Marc's room and hung out w/ him and his German friend Sarah until Rachel and Erin showed up. Erin had come to get her air mattress (and patch it - somehow a hole had appeared during on it's final day in my room) and we all sat around and watched silly music videos. The next morning, Rachel got up early and went to Erin's to get her phone. We hugged goodbye, because she was off to do her thing and then catch a train to Barcelona. She'll be back on Sunday and I am hoping we will have brunch with my Mom and Dad.

It being Tuesday, I of course had class. I headed off to Méthodes et outils pour la linguistique française, where we started doing phonetics. Ah, yes. Phonetics. I've taken four classes that cover phonetics, two of which focus on it specifically. The French kids have never seen the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) before. So I have a head start, which is nice because our first devoir is transcribing 33 seconds of French. I am going to own it.

Tuesday night I went over to Amy's to help her dye her hair. Our night revolved around potato chips, and she had procured many varieties. It was a good night, and I have a lot of pictures to go with it, so here they are:

Many varieties of chips

?

Amy has Christmas socks

Sadly not hot chocolate, but Coca Light

Chips are delicious

Only the cool kids pause to give a thumbs up while taking off their sweatshirts

Oh boy

Amy's ready to rock

The hair dye looks like caramel, but please don't eat it

Well of course eventually I had to take over. What kind of hair dye party would it be if I didn't?

I started going through Amy's music and found a good deal of 98º, NSYNC and Backstreet Boys. This prompted us to decided a boy band cover duo. I am very excited.

This is how one dances to 90s pop while lying on the floor

Goofs

This is an amazing photograph

It was pretty late when we started so I slept over, on this foamy mattress thing of her roommate's which was exttremely squishy and comfortable. I slept like a rock. Didn't really want to get up the next morning though, as you can imagine.

I got up at 7:45 and was home by nine. Took a shower and got ready for class. I went to Atelier d'écriture and then went to Clignancourt for a Translation class. I decided to drop Cinema and Society and take Translation instead, so I went to Tatjana's Version (English to French) class in the afternoon. She's not teaching the same level of Thème (French to English) this semester, but she told me that she's teaching the next year's level of it, which is probably better for me anyway, on Wednesday mornings at eight. It's early, but she's a really good teacher so I think I am going to do it. Wednesday night I had an 8 PM movie class, which was horrendous. Only one guy showed up, and then we got to the theater really early, and it was just awkward. And the only thing playing at the right time was P.S. I Love You, so I was basically on this weird awkward chick flick date with my student. But I liked the movie and it made me want to move to Ireland. I think I will go there when I have a two-week break in April. I got home around midnight and put sheets on my bed and collapsed after the longest day I have had in a long time.

Today I dragged myself out of bed for my first Ancient Greek class, which was overwhelming since I missed it last week. But I think I am the only person in that class who has taken Latin, so I was the only one who fully understood what cases and declensions are. It made me feel smart. Even if I've forgotten how to write anything in Latin, at least the basic process of learning it has left me with some useful knowledge. Then I went to Malesherbes for my Grammaire et linguistique TD, stopping beforehand at my favorite traiteur asiatique to get me some raviolis pékinois (guess what that means) for lunch, along with a spring roll (Thai roll to those of you who go to Via Lago) the size of a burrito. Turns out Donal was in my new section, along with only about ten other people. Finally, a small class in France! Yes!

Now I have finally churned out this blog entry and I don't feel so blog-negligent. And tomorrow my parents will be here!

And just a picture of my popular pad which, if you weren't paying attention, four different people slept in on and off for five nights in a row:

Prendiamo una camera?

2008-01-30T14:56:00.000-08:00

I am slowly catching up on posting about Italy... bear with me.

Friday was our second day in Pisa. After Yorgos set up cots for us, we crashed and slept until 11. We got up and got ready and said goodbye to Yorgos and headed back out to the Campo dei Miracoli. The night before, on the way home, I had bought a Kathy Reichs book, and so Vaune and I went back to the field and laid in the sun by the Battistero for at least an hour or two, Vaune listening to her iPod and me reading.

After that we followed a walk in our guide book and walked around Pisa.

All the statues in Pisa seemed to have a certain air of sauciness

We went back and got more gelato.

We also got stopped by an interviewer on the street with a microphone and a video camera. She asked if I spoke Italian, and when I told her (in Italian) that I was American, she took that as a yes, and asked me, "Sei inamorata?" Meaning, "Are you in love?" When I answered yes she seemed very surprised and then babbled something I didn't understand, which I told her in an odd mix of Italian and Spanish. After that we crossed the river and checked out a tiny church called Santa Maria della Spina (Saint Mary of the Thorn) which is apparently really well-known as an example of Gothic architecture in Europe.

Me kissing a face on the side of the church

We kept walking and discovered a long street of shops, where apparently everything in Italy was on sale just like everything in France.

We tried on hats

We went into almost every shop and even found a shop called Roberta 121.

The Arno at night

After shopping, we went back to the apartment and found Yorgos' flatmate Francesco had returned, and we had been joined by a Scottish couchsurfer named Jamie. Yorgos looked exhausted and asked if we could just order pizza for dinner. Could we! So we did, which in Italy means that everyone gets their own pizza. And the pizzas are pretty gigantic. So we all squeezed around the dinner table and ate our pizzas and drank wine (as well as cinnamon and chocolate liqueur) and had good conversation. We made fun of some of the phrases in our guidebook ("Shall we get a room?" "Do you believe in aliens?" "What is that funny smell?") and had a really fun evening. We decided that "Prendiamo una camera?" can be a response to anything:

"I have a fever."
"Shall we get a room?"
"What is that funny smell?"
"Shall we get a room?"
"Please don't touch me."
"Shall we get a room?"

Francesco

We finished it off by putting on "Suspiria," a really cracked-out Dario Argento film from the 70s. We fell asleep to its creepy soundtrack of what sounds like a dying old woman croaking, "La la la la..."

At 4 AM, Yorgos came to wake up Jamie, who had a 6 AM flight. Vaune and I woke up for about ten seconds then fell back asleep. We finally got out of bed around noon, courtesy of Yorgos and Francesco's blackout blinds that make it seem like night all day. We finished off our pizza for breakfast, Vaune did the dishes, and we sneakily left 20E hiding in their kitchen (they hadn't let us pay for any food for our stay). We waited around until they got up and we said goodbye. We threatened to take Janis (the cat) away with us, but she chose to stay. So we made sure we had everything, and hugged and cheek-kissed Yorgos and Francesco goodbye and headed for the train station. Old pros by now, we knew not to pay for the bus. We felt so Italian. We got off at Pisa Centrale, and got our tickets at the self-service machine and ran outside to catch our train (it was leaving in ten minutes). Of course, the Pisa to Florence train leaves about every fifteen minutes, so the ticket is really general and can be used for six hours after you validate it, so if we'd missed the train, we could have just gotten on the next one. But we didn't miss it, we hopped on it and away we went. There were very few people on the train and it was a pleasant ride, even if my iPod battery was dead. I read my Kathy Reichs book and stared out the window.

Excited to go to Florence, but sad to leave Yorgos and Francesco (and, little did we know, the sunny weather) behind

When we got to Florence, Vaune's friend's old roommate came and picked us up at the train station. We went back to her apartment and just kind of relaxed for a bit. Then we went to the grocery store. Vaune and I bought the ingredients for what we are now calling a "Yorgos Salad," although we got bufala instead of plain fresh mozzarella - it is fresh mozzarella made from wild buffalo milk. And it is delicious. So we came back and made the salad. It was lettuce and corn and tomatoes and mozzarella like Yorgos made it, but we added basil. It was delicious. We had dinner with Sara and her flatmate and then sat around for a bit before going back to Sara's room and continuing to chill out. We even learned a new pickup line: "Vuoi vedere la mia collezion de farfalle?" It means, "Do you want to see my butterfly collection?" and legally, in Italy, if you say yes to that question, you have legally consented to sex. Scary. Now I know. Eventually we got ready for bed and I crashed in moments. Sara let me sleep in her bed while she slept on a mattress pad. She claims the mattress pad alone is probably more comfortable than the bed, but still. Vaune slept in her sleeping bag on the floor.

Sunday morning we got up and I tried to take a shower. The water was freezing and the showerhead wasn't attached to the wall, so I pretty much just washed my face and hair. After we had some cereal for breakfast we were good to go. We started out just walking around the old area of Florence (okay, it's all old). Sadly, the sun was gone.

Outfit made of towels!

Vaune is a lush

Vaune is Totally White

Piazza della Repubblica

We stumbled upon an outdoor market (mostly leather, mostly stolen) which has a bronze boar in it (of which there are copies all over the city). Legend has it that if you rub his nose, you'll return to Florence.

I found this whole thing kind of creepy

This saucy lamb hangs out near the market

We found Piazza della Signoria, in front of Palazzo Vecchio. It has a lot of world-class sculptures just kind of sitting there. It's also where Savonarola held the Bonfire of the Vanities, and where he himself was burned to death one year later.

Let me translate, roughly (my Italian has mostly slipped away):

"Here, where Fra Girolamo Savonarola was strung up and burned on May 23rd, 1948 with his colleagues Fra Domenico Buonvicini and Fra Silvestro Maruffi, after four centuries this monument has been placed."

Turn me over, I'm done on that side.

Piazza della Signoria/Palazzo Vecchio (the day was grey so some of these pictures have been replaced with ones that we came back and took when it was sunny):

Vaune and I with "the big white one."

Vaune and I with "Fake David" #1

Slagathor and myself w/ Fake David

The Rape of Polyxena ("rape" in this case and the later one means "kidnapping," rather than its use today), by my new favorite sculptor, Giambologna

Giambologna was known for being able to capture complex images of movement. You can really tell when you walk around the sculptures - they almost look like they are moving.

Hercules beating Nessus

So you get the picture:

Rape of the Sabine Women

Judith and Holofernes

Then we went into the Uffizi and saw lots of famous art. I think the coolest thing was seeing the Birth of Venus. Also, we saw a collection of prints by Chimei Hamada, which were very interesting.

Outside the Uffizi

I thought he was real. Did you? Of course, I have extremely poor eyesight.

After the Uffizi we were starving so we found a caffé and got mozzarella and basil panini. Then it was time for gelato. Gelato never gets old.

After our gelato we walked to the Duomo. We took lots of pictures and went inside the Cathedral. It was really beautiful.

The Gates of Paradise

A woman came up to Vaune and said she was a fashion journalist and said she liked the way Vaune was dressed and asked to take her picture. Afterwards, I of course demaded my own glamour shot of the model.

Under the Duomo

I jumped in front of Vaune's camera

After that we were pretty beat but we went over to the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence. I tried to put a link to Wikipedia for it and then realized that I wasn't satisfied with any online accounts of its history - each of them leaves out something. The story goes like this: Ponte Vecchio was the first bridge in Florence. For a long time it was the only one. It was originally made of wood, and built in 50BC, roughly where the ferry had been that brought people across the river before the bridge was built. It was swept away by several floods, but always rebuilt. The current bridge was built in 1345. The reconstruction was paid for by renting space to shopkeepers on the bridge. Originally the bridge was populated with butchershops and tanners. This was smelly and offensive to the Medici family, however, so they had them thrown out and replaced them with jewelers - the bridge is still full of them. The Medicis also had a passageway built above the bridge so that when they crossed it they would not have to mingle with the common folk. My favorite part of the story, however, is World War II. The Ponte Vecchio was the only bridge in Florence not to be bombed. A German bomber couldn't bear to destroy it, so instead he bombed the buildings on either side to prevent use of the bridge. There is a plaque thanking him on the bridge. There are also a lot of padlocks on the bridge... it is said if lovers lock a padlock on the bridge and throw the key into the water, they will be eternally bonded - but now there is a 50 Euro fine because so many locks had to be removed so frequently in order not to damage the structure of the bridge.

Boarded up shops (it was Sunday)

Diamonds are a girl's best friend

After the Ponte Vecchio we looked in some shops and finally headed home to Sara's. She and her roommates took us to a pizzeria and we had pizza and cheesecake ai frutti di bisco. Mmmm. I think frutti di bosco is my favorite thing in Italy.

It's man devouring man, my dear, and who are we to deny it in here?

2008-01-30T13:58:00.000-08:00

Well, while I am spending weeks and weeks trying to upload photos to my posts from Italy, I thought I would give you a little news about the days since I've returned to Paris to keep you occupied in the meantime.

Pretty positive for the most part. Taking a break from Paris definitely helped. I immediately went back to teaching classes. I watched some TV shows with one class, and took another to Starbucks and made them read my Dad's book. The next day I watched Fight Club with them. Not too strenuous.

I started second semester classes at Reid Hall today. First class today was Atelier d'écriture, which means "writing workshop." It was fun, I was my usual enthusiastic grammar nerd self and probably annoyed people by throwing my hand up in the air at every question. But I can't help it - I get excited about grammar! I'm not ashamed.

After that, I got my grades back from 1st semester:

Grammaire et histoire de la langue: A
Suédois: A-
Grammaire (Reid Hall): A
Translation: A

No complaints here. Now I just have to figure out what Sorbonne classes to take next semester.

I had the French Cinema and Society class this evening. It's not really my thing but it's a French credit and it's another Reid Hall class, so I know it will be relatively well-organized. I'm going to try to take a couple of Linguistics classes at the Sorbonne, but they don't start until Feb 11, so I have a few days to figure it out. Of course, they haven't posted any classes yet.

I've been listening to Sweeney Todd nonstop the past few days. My favorites are: Victor Garber singing "Johanna" on the Original Broadway Cast recording, Neil Patrick Harris (yes, Doogie Howser) singing "Nothing's Gonna Harm You" from "Sweeney Todd in Concert," and Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter singing "A Little Priest" from the new Tim Burton movie. Go see the movie if you haven't yet!

"A Little Priest" - Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter

"Not While I'm Around" - Neil Patrick Harris and Patti Lupone

I can't find a single video or photo of Victor Garber as Anthony Hope :-(

Rome

2008-01-25T08:53:00.000-08:00

I am sitting in a park in Rome using the free internet. The price of this is that I have to listen to eight billion Italian couples making out/making babies because everyone lives at home until they are 30 so they have to go to public spaces to make out. The ones nearest me are making disgusting slurping noises so I started making slurping noises as well. I am so mature.

Long picturey posts coming when I am back in Paris and have consistent internet.

Campo dei Miracoli

2008-01-18T02:36:00.001-08:00

Thursday was day one in Pisa. I woke up at 4 AM after a late night, showered, got some stuff together, ate breakfast, and met Vaune at the elevator at 5:30. We took the RER to Chatelet and the 1 to Porte Maillot, where we crossed a giant (empty) intersection to get to the Beauvais Airport shuttle bus. Beauvais is the airport that the cheap airlines fly out of, and technically it is an airport that serves Paris, but it is an hour and a half out of the city. We left around 6:30 AM. The drive was actually rather nice, and being on the highway in Paris reminded me of being on the highway in New Orleans. I put in my headphones, turned on my iPod, and conked out to Deb Talan.

Vaune woke me up when we got there at 7:45 AM. We couldn't check in yet so we got some sandwiches and water, and expressed our excitement that we were going to Italy.

Around 9 we checked in for our 9:55 flight. It was so easy, because it's such a tiny airport and nobody flies out of it, so there was no hassle. This airport was literally maybe the size of half of one floor of Clarke Middle School. We went through security and they gave me shit about not having the prescription for my Epi-Pens with me. I wonder if it would ever occur to a French person that in the US we don't keep our prescription papers, we give them to the pharmacists. Then we just waited around, blah blah blah. Finally we got on our plane. No assigned seating, just sit wherever you want. The plane was nearly empty. It was a very strange experience. I fell asleep. When I woke up, I looked out the window and saw... The Alps. Mountains as far as the eye could see. It was surreal. It was like a painting, or a miniature Styrofoam sculpture. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera.

We landed around 11:45. I got my checked bag (actually Alexis' extra duffel bag) with no problem. We had a little difficulty figuring out which bus to take, but once we did it was pretty easy. We changed at the main train station and got on another bus. We were supposed to tell the busdriver that we wanted to get off at "Coop Cisanello." I was terrified to do this, because although I expected the people at the airport to speak some English, I did not expect the busdriver to speak any, and my Italian is shaky and forgotten at best. Also, there was a crazy guy blocking my way. Once I navigated past the crazy guy and got up to the bus driver, I managed to squeak out a paltry "Scusa?" which got him to look at me, at which point I dove in headfirst - "Um, devo scendere al Coop Cisanello. Può dirmi quando ci arriveremo?" - meaning (I hope), "I have to get off at Coop Cisanello. Can you tell me when we get there?" This was as far as I had gotten in my practice Italian the night before, so I was kind of thrown when the bus driver said, "Coop Cisanello? Never heard." He could say barely anything in English, so we had a very odd conversation. He asked me where I was from and told me he had a daughter in Los Angeles. He told me I speak good Italian, at which I laughed out loud, and he protested, saying, "Is true! Is true!" I have found that if you can say one sentence in Italian, that is enough for the Italians. They are proud of you for trying.

He asked me if it was near Cisanello Hospital, to which I replied (in Italian), "I don't know. Someone said Coop Cisanello," which was all I could get out. He asked if I was staying in a hotel and I told him, "No, con un mio amico," and he promptly told me to call the guy and ask him where the stop was. So I called the guy we are staying with. His name is Yorgos and he is half-Greek, half-Sicilian. I found him on Couchsurfing, and he is awesome. Anyway, I called him, and he picked up the phone exclaiming "Roberta!" in an Italian accent. It was wonderful. Anyway, he looked up the stop and told it to us, and we had no trouble after my brief, frightening yet exciting exchange with the bus driver. Yorgos picked us up at the bus stop and took us up to his apartment which was very close to a) the bus stop and b) Coop Cisanello, which turned out to be a giant grocery store. We met his cat Janis, and he made us spaghetti for lunch. Vaune and I could barely keep ourselves from hopping up and down with glee. In fact, we didn't really restrain ourselves and just kind of giggled with happiness throughout the whole meal.

Yorgos making pasta for us

After lunch it was time to explore. Sadly, Yorgos couldn't come with us because he had studying to do. Equipped with a travel guide from Madame Beaufort's office and directions from Yorgos, we headed for the river.

On the bridge

We turned right at what we thought was Piazza dei Cavalieri but turned out to be Piazza Garibaldi and wended our way through a tiny back alley.

Vaune is excited that we found Kebab in Italy

I was walking down the alley and said, "I feel like there should be laundry hanging out somewhere." And then I looked up, and there it was!

"Ahh, I'm standing in a creepy alley!"

A tower, and a pizzeria

Once we got out into the bigger streets, we turned a corner and suddenly there it was, the Tower of Pisa, leaning before us. I mean, it was just right there. It's not the kind of thing you expect to turn a corner and just see. I expected some sort of lead-up, security, throngs of humanity in camera-happy stupor, but it was just there, at the end of the street.

"Oh my god, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is RIGHT THERE."

We don't know why this car tire was filled with cement.

We just walked right up to it. There was practically nobody there. It was AMAZING. I just couldn't get over how crazy it was that it was just there, with a tiny little fence thing around it. Leaning. And it really leans. I always knew it did, of course, but pictures don't do it justice. Pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa are so common that you start to just think of them as postcard images and not as something real. But there it is, really leaning. Actually, all of the buildings in the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) lean a little bit, but you don't notice it because the "Torre Pendente" leans so much more. IT WAS SO COOL. I was ecstatic. Vaune pointed out that I never get that way about France, and it's true. France doesn't awe me any more. But to be at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and for there to be nobody there, and for the sky to be so blue... it was just breathtaking.

The cathedral

We walked around to the front and took some totally fun Leaning Tower pictures.

Leaning Bobbie and Vaune in front of Leaning Tower

I even took one of Vaune taking a picture of the Tower, because some of those pictures look so fake.

After exhausting every possible angle, we walked around the rest of the Campo dei Miracoli and then back the way we came. On the way back we stopped at the Bottega del Gelato, which was mentioned in our guidebook and which we kind of stumbled upon. I agree with Yorgos - it may be the best ice cream in the world. Especially the Tuttobosco, or "forest fruits." Yum.

On the way back, we walked along the Arno listening to our iPods. Deb Talan accompanied me through Pisa. She should really know that I listen to her music as I stand next to famous rivers.

When we got back to the apartment, we couldn't find the grocery store or remember what floor Yorgos lived on, so he met us downstairs. We went to the store and got stuff for dinner. After that we relaxed for a bit, and around 7:15 we started cooking. I cut up the fresh mozzarella, Vaune cut up the tomatoes, and Yorgos fried the pork chops. It was AMAZING. Pork chops fried in butter, and salad with mozzarella, tomatoes, corn and balsamic vinaigrette. YUM.

Afterwards we had wine and talked for hours about a lot of things, including Italian film, politics, and the American higher education system. Yorgos is "90% sure that a Republican will not win." I wish I had his confidence. We also showed Yorgos our pictures from the day... and a couple of Peter Shields' music videos. He translated the Greek from one of them for us. Apparently Peter is pretty good at Greek and could feasibly achieve his dream of becoming a Greek crossover star.

Then it was time for bed. Yorgos brought out two cots and we crashed. We slept like babies. Don't you want to know what happened next? Tune in next time for Italian pickup lines and tiny churches.

Boulot

2008-01-15T13:07:00.000-08:00

Stuff has started happening in my life again! By which I mean I have a job, so I have things to write about.

Yesterday I dragged myself out of bed at 9 AM to call Alexis, who had to get up at 3 AM EST in order to be at work at 4. I guess that's what happens when you work in a coffee shop. After that I went back to bed and slept way too late. When I finally got up, I leisurely went grocery shopping, thinking I had all the time in the world before my 8 PM class that I was teaching. I got home around 3 PM and went online to make sure I had cancelled one of my empty classes. And lo and behold, I had a class at 3:45 that I had totally forgotten about! Luckily the school is very close to where I live so I had plenty of time. We were suppposed to go see a movie called We Own the Night, but since we have to make our classes 8 days in advance, sometimes the movie times have changed by the time we actually have the class. This was the case yesterday, and there were no movies playing until an hour later. Since the class is only two hours long, and I had another one later in the evening, we didn't have time to see the later movies... and who wants to wait around for an hour just to sit watching a movie? So we spent maybe a half an hour talking about what we wanted to do, and then went across the street to Starbucks. We sat around and talked, and it was much more what a conversation class should be like anyway, so it was fine. We talked about TV and told jokes and had a good time. My first conversation class where we had actual conversations!

Afterwards some of them went to see the movie, and I went home, ate and showered. At 7:30 I met Julie in front of the tram and we went to the school to pick up my other class. We were just going to go to a bar and talk, but I don't know what bars would be good for that, so I asked them. I figured they would know god bars near their school, but instead they dragged us all the way to Bastille.

After the class, Julie and I met up with her friend Sophie and we went to the Troisième Lieu for maybe an hour, and then I came home and went to bed.

This morning was very similar... Crawled out of bed at 9 to call Alexis, slept way too late. But then I spent two hours wandering around Paris trying to find an Italian restaurant that would let five French students and their English teacher have dinner at 5:30 PM. Finally I found one and went home, drenched from the rain. At 5 I met my students and brought them to the restaurant. Erin met us there. We had a pretty good time, nice and relaxed. It was good to have relaxing class with sweet guys after my horrible one last night.

Now I am home. I should be studying for Swedish. I made some flashcards. That counts, right?

Tomorrow is my Swedish exam, then Grammar exam, then sleep. Then Italy! We will be in Pisa for two days, Florence for four, and Rome for four. I hope to update from Italy!

And some pictures that go with my previous post:

Teaching Erin to swing at Le Troisième Lieu

Julie and Mona

Our veggie burgers

The Third Place

2008-01-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

Things have been pretty normal lately, not much of interest to write about...

I got a couple of my exams back. These are the first indication I have gotten during the whole semester of how I am doing in my classes! Luckily I'm doing fine. My Translation exam came out pretty much as I expected - I got a 15/20 on the French to English part and a 10/20 on the English to French. That may seem pretty bad... but keep in mind that an American A is a 14/20 in France. When they set a curve, the person who did the best gets a 14, not a 20. So a 15 is pretty damn good, and a 10 is a low B. Put them together along with the fact that Tulane has agreed to count the French to English section for more, and I have an A- in Translation. Nice.

My Grammar and History of Language class is the one that I basically though I was going to fail, but I did pretty well there, too. I don't know how I did on the work that I turned in to her, but on the exam I got an 11/10 on the first part (I still don't understand this) and a 6/10 on the second part, which adds up to a 17/20... totally rad. So I'm doing very well in the two classes in which I have received my graded exams. Hopefully my other two exams will go well, too. Seems like they like to make you sweat and think you are going to do horribly and then, presto change-o, A+!

In other news, a girl named Julie is visiting Paris right now. She's from Australia and is traveling the world for three months, or until her money runs out. I met her on Couchsurfing.com. She's staying in a hostel, but she wanted to see some sights with someone who knows the city but speaks English, and so she sent me a message. So we met up on Friday. I took her with me to the Louvre with my conversation class. Most of the guys ditched after an hour, but one of them asked if he could stay and walk around the Louvre with us, and we had a fun time going back and forth between he and I trying to translate descriptions of Egyptian art, including bizarre vocabulary that neither of us knew. Afterwards, Julie and I came back to the Fondation where we tried out the closest thing I could find in France to veggie burgers. They were pretty good, but really squishy, and the buns were lame and fell apart. But we had a good meal, all in all. After that we met Erin at Châtelet and went to Le Troisième Lieu, a bar which I really do enjoy, but I keep meeting weird guys there who seem nice and then turn out to be completely creepy. For example, this is the bar where I threw beer in a guy's face (one of my life goals, completed). But as usual, we met some cool people of various nationalities. Julie, who is from Melbourne, even met another Aussie at the bar!

I've spent the rest of this weekend lazing around and taking advantage of the fact that they have finally re-opened the laundry room at the Fondation. It still costs an arm and a leg, but it's a little cheaper, it's close to home, and you only need to run one dryer cycle to dry your clothes, which is basically priceless in France. Usually I have to pay 1E for ten minutes, and this time I paid 1E50 for nearly an hour and a half of drying.

I have also been trying out some of the vegetarian foods that I bought at this organic, natural, vegetarian store called Naturalia. It's not that I'm going veggie or anything - just trying to eat healthy. But really, I'm just not that into soy products. I tried the aforementioned veggie burger-like things, which were pretty good. But I also had these little star-shaped things made of tofu and veggies as well as tofu hot dogs, and they were both kind of gross. I had to use a lot of ketchup. It doesn't help that there's nothing really yummy like Boca Burgers or Gardenburgers. I think that for my health food I am just going to stick to muesli and yogurt for breakfast, and stir-fried vegetables. Although this store Naturalia is the only place in France where I have found sweet potatoes... I'll have to go back!

So, two more exams and then Italy!

Some random pictures, because they have been sadly absent from my blog lately:

Foucault's pendulum - not the original exactly, because the original would have fallen apart by now, but not really a replica either. More like the real thing with new parts. In it's original home, the Panthéon.

The courtyard of the Louvre at night - not the part that you usually see pictures of, eh?

Paige (who stayed with me through Couchsurfing) and I and some enthusiastic tourists who wanted their picture taken with us. I never did get around to writing about Paige's visit...

Chili cheese fries, a Coke and a milkshake at Breakfast in America, and American diner in Paris. It's the real deal - those are the best chili cheese fries I have ever had.

They light up the Eiffel Tower with sparkling lights for ten minutes every hour at night.

Some monks who wanted their picture with us. This was amazing.

Vaune, myself and Alan on a night out on the town right before break

Alexis and me on New Year's Eve in New Jersey

Family photo - with the cat!

And silliness to end the post

Back in action

2008-01-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

Well, after exams, illness, holidays, and approximately 37 hours of travel time, I am back to Paris, and back to my sadly neglected blog.

The holidays were interesting. They had high points and low points, but this is not the place for those stories.

I arrived in Paris on Sunday morning, after having left on Saturday afternoon. It was 7:30 AM in Paris, and 1:30 AM in my brain. I actually slept some on the long flight, which was a pleasant surprise. In fact, once the plane started landing I started to get grumpy because I wanted to keep sleeping. But land we did. Customs was much quicker to go through than when I flew in in August, and I got my bags without trouble, at which point I headed off to find the subway. Little did I know that I had to walk about a mile in the airport before finding it.

But walk I did, carrying nearly my own weight in luggage, and eventually I found the entrance to the RER. I managed to make it through the turnstile with my giant rolling suitcase, matching carry-on, borrowed duffel bag, and giant backpack. Then I settled into my seat for the long ride back to the Cité U.

When I finally got back, I had to go upstairs and get my key from Vaune. Turns out Renata Maniaci had it, and was also sleeping in my bed. So we rousted her out of there and I promptly took a shower and slept until 5 PM. Meaning I didn't get to sleep until maybe 3 AM that night. This proved fun the next day, as it was my first class teaching English conversation to computer science students.

No one had signed up for my first class so I cancelled it, meaning I got to sleep in. But around noon Vaune, Renata and I headed over to the school to grab our students. Four of my six students showed up and we went to see Gone Baby Gone at the Gaumont Parnasse. It was pretty good, I recommend it. It was also a low-stress way to ease into teaching English classes to French IT students. Afterwards, they asked me to go bowling with them, which was nice. I didn't go, but at least they like me. I'm thinking about making a bowling class for when we get back from Italy.

SPEAKING of Italy. Vaune and I are going to Italy from the 17th to the 27th! We are spending 2 nights in Pisa, 4 nights in Florence and 4 nights in Rome. It ought to be pretty awesome. Vaune's taken care of figuring out most of the travel arrangements, and I am working on places to stay. Mostly through Couchsurfing.com. I have already had one person stay with me and it was a very positive experience. I think this website is really great and helpful and they've built a really amazing community of people who love to travel and want to help other people be able to travel to the places they want to visit. I really encourage you to check it out! Especially the Beyer aunts... for some reason I think you would all find this site very interesting.

As for now, our last week of classes has started up. It's review time before my two remaining exams - Grammar and Swedish. I also have to complete two Swedish assignments by Thursday. I think it will be okay though. As odd as it was, I kind of like that two of my exams were before my two week break (because they were held during class) and two of them are after (because they are held during exam periods). All I have to do now is work out the timing between those two exams, because they are on the same day. Hopefully this week I will also find out some of my grades from the exams I have already taken. We'll see how it goes!

Also, I now have something called SkypeIn. It means that I have a US phone number that is assigned to my Skype account, so you can call me from a US phone and reach me on Skype, costing no more than it would normally cost to call a number from my area code! It's very cool. I also have voicemail so if you miss me you can leave a message, and I am trying to set up call forwarding to my French cell phone as we speak. If you would like the number, please ask me and I will e-mail it to you - I am obviously not going to post it on my public blog.

Running around in Rennes

2007-12-12T03:24:00.000-08:00

As I sit at home, sick, dreading the Translation “devoirs sur table” (in class translation test) that I have this afternoon, dreaming of better times, I feel like I should write about my past two weekends, both of which were glorious. I’ll start with this past weekend with Carolyn, because it is a shorter story and does not include pictures.

I left you in suspense on Thursday as I got ready to head to the train station. After posting in my blog, I rounded up ALL of my dirty laundry, as well as a few other necessities, dropped my key off with Vaune, and went to the train station. Even with my giant suitcase I had very little trouble taking the Métro to Gare Montparnasse, where I arrived just in time to see which platform my train was on and roll on over there. I got on, a lovely man helped me with my bag, and I settled into my seat. I finished my book a half-hour into the ride, so then I had to spend the next hour and a half listening to the creepy man across from me whisper sweet nothings in bad English to his surprisingly pretty girlfriend. They were very weird and creepy. I was really glad when they got off at Laval.

When I arrived in Rennes, Carolyn met me at the train station. The Rennes public transportation system (which consists of one Metro line and many bus lines) was having some sort of Christmas pass thing going on, so I managed to get around pretty inexpensively for the weekend. We bought a couple of day passes and took the Metro to Carolyn’s dorm. I met her friends Tiffany, Brierley and Haley, all of whom were very pleasant. Carolyn was in the midst of making cookies in Haley’s toaster oven, so we finished that up and then went to Carolyn’s French class for foreign students, much like my grammar class at Reid Hall. It was fun, the teacher was pleasant, and I think I was sufficiently impressive so as to not make Carolyn look bad.

Friday we “slept in” which for Carolyn and me means we slept until nine. We lazed around and then went out to Indian food, which was delicious. After that we wandered around a cool crafts market. Then we went home and had naptime and went to see Il Etait Une Fois - more commonly known in the US as “Enchanted” - dubbed over in French. After that we kind of crashed again - we kept not eating being hungry for dinner and just kind of going to sleep.

Saturday we got up early and went to the open air market. It was a grey rainy day but the market was beautiful, with all the bright colors of the fruits and vegetables. We got galettes for breakfast - I got a double sausage cheese and onion galette, in which the cheese and onions are inside the galette and then the galette is wrapped around this delicious sweet sausage. It was amazing, if a little overwhelming.

When we got back, I did my laundry. I had brought all of my laundry with me because doing laundry at Carolyn’s dorm is cheaper and easier than hauling it to a laundromat down my street. While we did my laundry we lazed around and watched TV shows. Carolyn left to go do some grocery shopping. When she got back we were supposed to go to a music festival that was in Rennes that weekend, but we were too tired so we just chilled out some more. I know it sounds like we did a lot of just chilling out, but let me remind you that Carolyn had not been expecting a visitor, and I was very sick. So don’t judge!

Around seven we went to the grocery store one more time to pick some things up, and then headed to Carolyn’s friend Annie’s apartment. I already knew Annie because she (almost) stayed with me one night in Paris. Carolyn made lasagna from scratch while we sat around watching silly music videos. The lasagna was delicious, and at one point Carolyn and I got up and clogged. We were pretty silly, but it turns out we remember most of it - Carolyn better than I.

We went back and got ready for bed, and Brierley gave me some medicine for my stomach which helped it not hurt so much. Then it was bedtime.

Sunday was definitely a relax kind of day, because on Sundays in France there is nothing to do. Carolyn and I spent most of the day reacquainting ourselves with silly card games we haven’t played in years, most notably Spit, although we also tried Crazy Eights and Go Fish. For breakfast, Tiffany made pancakes, which were delicious. We watched a lot of Harry Potter, and I even popped some popping corn that Carolyn had found at a co-op in a pot and ate it with lots of melted butter and salt, and then in the evening Tiffany and Brierley made fajitas. Later, we watched Margaret Cho with Haley. All in all, a good time was had.

Monday morning Carolyn took me to Géant, which is a huge hypermarché and we found all sorts of fun things there. We also went to a crafts store and I bought some knitting supplies because I have been itching to just make something. Then we tried to go to this co-op so I could buy some popping corn for myself, but it was closed. We went back and got my stuff and said bye to everyone and then Carolyn took me to the train station. I forgot to punch my ticket so Carolyn had to run back and do it for me, but other than that there were no hitches. I knitted on the train, got back fine, and crashed. I spent the whole next day trying to find a doctor, but that’s another story for another time. As well as the story of Paige’s visit. There are now pictures, so I can post that soon!

Video of the Day - "Parle à ma main" by Fatal Bazooka feat. Yelle

I'll give you a hint - "Parle à ma main" means "talk to the hand." Watch it. It's hilarious.

J'ai douze ans

2007-12-06T04:10:00.000-08:00

So part of my plan in life is to always strive to be more like I was when I was 12 or 13 - spontaneous, fun, not anxious all the time like I am now, oblivious to negative people, self-confident, thinking I can do anything. Part of what I miss is after school sometimes I would just be like, "Carolyn! Come over!" or "Sarah! I'm coming to your house and making popcorn!" Sarah would always say we were doing homework or that she was staying late at school to do work or practice violin when she would come to my house. We would call respective parents and tell them the plan, and someone would inevitably end up staying for dinner. And we walked everywhere.

This morning in Grammaire et Histoire de Langue, the teacher gave me a hard time for not typing an assignment that only I have. For one thing, I have very neat handwriting, and it's only one person. You can handle it. For another, it was just some exercises. Not an essay or anything. But she literally said that she physically could not correct it. What the hell. So I rolled my eyes and she yelled at me. I was suddenly reminded of Mr. Palladino/Mr. Wilkins/other mean teachers of LHS and Clarke Middle School lore. I did what I usually used to do in that situation (at the age of 12 or 13): First, I talked back to the teacher, saying that I had never ever turned in an assignment in France and that in the U.S. if you are doing numbered exercises it would be considered weird to type them up (which she did not believe). Second, I totally made a comeback by being the only person in that room full of French students confident enough in her abilities of the International Phonetic Alphabet to go up to the board and transcribe masculine and feminine forms of adjectives. I did pretty damn well and she was definitely surprised, and the French students started muttering. Finally, I said to myself, "Screw it, this teacher made me feel stupid for no reason and I am in a bad mood. I'm going to Rennes to see Carolyn this afternoon. I've had enough of mean Parisians." So after class I went and bought a train ticket to Rennes for this afternoon. I'm leaving in fifteen minutes. I guess this means it's time to call my Mom and tell her I am going to Carolyn's after school today and I will probably stay for dinner (and four nights). I am not, however, going to walk there.

(I would love to right about my great weekend, but I am waiting for Paige to upload the pictures. Soon!)

Sorry for the dry spell

2007-11-28T01:19:00.000-08:00

This is just a brief update to let everyone know that I am well. Thanksgiving was fine, Katie visited from Angers, we got dressed up and went out to dinner. More on that another time. The transit strike has basically gone out with a whimper... again. The student protests are continuing on. They just voted to blockade Malesherbes, where I have most of my classes. Luckily I don't have any classes there today. They'll vote today to decide if they will blockade tomorrow. If they do, I won't know until I get there at 8 AM.

People in the US seem to know more about these riots on the outskirts of Paris than I do, which should tell you just how little they are affecting me.

I went to an orientation for a possible job last night. The guy was insane, but I liked him. I would be teaching English conversation classes to nerdy French computer programming students. The only hitch is that I need to get someone from Tulane to sign a French internship agreement. I'm working on that.

So now I am off to Grammar class, where I will get my midterm back. It should be a nice fat A. Then translation, then home. Starting tomorrow, I have a girl staying with me for a few nights, so that should be fun. Also, it turns out that a girl I went to high school with is going to be living in the Fondation next semester! Cool. And I am coming home for Christmas in 24 days. All is well.

Steeeeerike

2007-11-19T22:43:00.000-08:00

Just a brief update before I (try to) go to Swedish class. France is broken.

Strikes, strikes, and more strikes.

"It's gonna take you and the police department and the fire department and the National Guard to get me outta here!"

2007-11-15T02:31:00.000-08:00

The French are striking. Again.

This seems to be strike week. One sector strikes, and all the other decide to jump on the bandwagon. We begin with the still-unhappy railroad workers, move on to outraged students, and finish with civil servants. We also randomly saw the Communist Party marching in the streets today.

The railroad strike is very similar to the last one. No trains running, causing over 350 km of traffic jams. We walked forty minutes to one of our classes yesterday morning, but that was the only one we could conceivably get to on foot, so now we have the rest of the week off. Fun? Sort of, except we can’t get anywhere. Vaune and Jen and I had lunch at a Chinese place on the way home to reward ourselves.

We also have students protesting and blockading buildings. They are protesting against “La loi d’autonomie universitaire” or “La loi Pécresse.” This flyer outlines the problems with this law:

Let me translate some of them for you.

-A change in the level of funding for university, with the encouragement of private funding and the lessening of public funding, which leads to a dependence of universities on enterprises

-An inequality between establishments, in terms of regions (which offers more or fewer job opportunities) and fields of study (meaning, for example, that they are dedicated to social studies or hard sciences)

-A loss of pedagogic autonomy, with the possibility of “purchasing” a seat on the Administrative Council by enterprises that fund the university and that therefore put pressure on the curriculum, the offer of education, and research guidelines.

-A “presidentialization” of universities, meaning a concentration of power in the hands of the president and a lessening of student representation (fewer representatives in the Administrative Council)

-A risk of disappearance of fields (of study?) that cannot gain a profit, by the presence of representatives of enterprises in the Administrative Council as well as by the liberty accorded by the State to each establishment in terms of the creation of departments/majors; a university funded by enterprises and therefore subjected to their interests would not favor curricula that the enterprise deemed “unprofitable.”

-A risk of instituting “selection for university entry,” notably by the system of “pre-registration” (high school students now have to send a file to the universities they want to go to before registering).

At the bottom, in the dark grey, it says:

To fight against this law being put into use, the universities of Rouen, Toulouse, Rennes 2, Lille 3, Perpignan, Tolbiac and Clignancourt are blockaded. At Malesherbes, the question of blockading will be the order of the day of the General Assembly of the 13th November at noon in the courtyard. Come en masse!

I didn’t go to this General Assembly, as it was between my Swedish class and my Grammar and History of Language Class. It did, however, rain that day, and so apparently the General Assembly was held in the Grand Amphi, which happens to be where my Grammar and History of Language Class is. Quelle coïncidence! So I copied down some of the points written on the blackboard:

-Referendum pour ou contre l’abrogation de la loi?
-Appel à la manifestation du 20 nov? [ADOPTE] 14 nov? [ADOPTE]
-Solidarité avec les autres mouvements sociaux?
-Coordination nationale?
-Créaton d’un comité d’étudiants de Paris IV - Malesherbes? (réflexion sur la loi sans blocage)
-Blocage de Paris IV - Malesherbes - Que les jours de manif?
-Rassemblement devant l’assemblée le vendredi 16 nov?

Translation:

-Referendum for or against repealing the law?
-Call to protest Nov 20? [ADOPTED] Nov 14? [ADOPTED]
-Solidarity with other social movements?
-National coordination?
-Creation of a student committee for Paris IV - Malesherbes? (Discussion of the law without blockading)
-Blockading of Paris IV - Malesherbes - only days of protests?
-Gathering before the Assembly on Friday Nov 16?

You have to keep in mind that both the flyer and those points are for one building. Granted, it is a building with a lot of students who have all or almost all of their classes there, but it is one building. This isn’t even university-wide organization, and they are talking about solidarity with other social movements and national coordination? Please.

Students protesting in Rennes (where Carolyn goes to school)

Now, a lot of these are valid fears, especially this whole thing with various enterprises getting involved in the academic process. But a few things jump out at me:

1. Private funding - TUITION??

2. Universities that are not all exactly the same and sometimes have different specialties and independent from the government!! Crazy talk.

3. “Presidentalization” - maybe then French universities would have some semblance of organization! This is heresy.

4. Applying to university! Ohs nos!

Any of this sound familiar? I mean, not to say that the U.S. secondary education system is perfect, but I’d say it works pretty well. My favorite complaint is the last one. French students don’t have to pay for university and they don’t have to apply (unless they go to one of the few Grandes Ecoles). No wonder the middle school students we saw in Angers were so misbehaved. They have absolutely no incentive to work hard. Maybe having to apply and/or pay for university would give them some incentive to actually do something and graduate instead of being perpetual students. There are fifty year old students in my classes because anyone can enroll at any time, but there are 30 year old students in my class because there is absolutely no incentive to finish on time.

On a side note, this makes me wonder where all of my Tulane tuition is going, since the Sorbonne is free… Some of it must have gone to CIDEF (classes, food, host family, excursions), some of it is our activities money, and some if it I think I get back at the end of the year… but that just doesn’t account for all of it. Where does it go?

In summary: Go students! Blockade! Protest influence by enterprises! But come on. Applying for college is not that bad. I mean, I got in, didn’t I?

Snap Shots

2007-11-15T01:57:00.000-08:00

So this is a lame and boring maintenance post. I just wanted to explain something that I just added to the site - “Snap Shots.” Basically, when you put your cursor over a link, a “snapshot” of where the link will take you is shown (like this). They have it on LiveJournal, which is where I got the idea. It annoyed me at first, but then I started to really like it. It’s especially cool for this blog because most of what I link to are Wikipedia articles, and Snap Shots has this thing where when you hover over a link for a Wikipedia article, it shows an interactive little Snap, including photos and links, (like this) which I think is awesome. It does other cool things, too, like play video right inside the window and show pictures, too, which I will continue to explore. However, I understand that not everyone will like this (it could be annoying to have little thingies popping up all over the place) so if you don’t want to see the Snap Shots, just hover over any link and then click the “Options” icon in the upper right corner and opt out.

This is an experiment - we’ll see how it works out.

Real post coming soon!