got the urge to post. it's 6:30 a.m., i got a little drunk last night trying to make friends up here, and decided eating an entire thing of cheesy bread by myself was a good idea. definitely not - i think my stomachache woke me up. or the TERRIBLE dream i was having, it was legit a nightmare only about my thesis. i'm supposed to start experiments on "my" turtles tomorrow, so turtles that count for data. in the dream, i was starting and things were working, and then i noticed how many things were wrong in my lab space. someone had taken down the black plastic i put up to cover the white walls. there was algae growing on EVERYTHING. my cameras were wet. someone moved the lights i carefully placed on the walls. it was terrible. in the dream i about broke down in tears 5 times. i ran around trying to figure out what the hell had happened, and apparently it was all about the plastic? who knows. it was a total anxiety dream. i ended up on some kind of amusement park ride where it felt like we were flying, crying to my friend about it, and i think that's when i woke up.

ok 6:30 a.m., i think i want my bed again now. i'll be up super late tomorrow because i'm too paranoid (obviously after that dream!) to leave my experiment running without me nearby in case something cuts off. so....i'll think of some good stories tomorrow. maybe.

i went back into paris to eat a salade chevre chaud at a café by st michel, and eat a crepe à nutella. then i was walking around a bit, and trying not to get upset but that was mostly failing, and it started snowing! just a few flurries. tried to cement all the images in my mind. it was very hard to leave and go back to the metro. at the airport, they told me the flight was overbooked and offered me compensation to stay another night. i couldn't do it though - it was tempting, but thinking about having to say goodbye twice felt like it would kill me. so now i'm back. i didn't cry cry on the plane but got a little upset. oh well. if i'm meant to go back there, like to live again, something will come up and i'll know. or at least that's what i tell myself. for now, it's back to the sea turtles

sarah had to wake up early (very early) to go back to work, so dylan and i got up around 10 and left by 11. stopped at the bakery by the tram station for a pain au chocolat :)

i dreamt that all of us had vampire boyfriends. that's all i remember though. felt pretty tired after being up last night... oh well.

our first stop was montparnasse to try and take the elevator up and take pictures of paris. first neither of us had metro tickets, so when we got off the tram we had no way to get into the metro station! cause you have to stick in a ticket. we ended up catching an exit door after someone left and jumping over hahaha it was way sketchy. oh well. then we had another fail and bought les passes jeunes but those are only for the weekends! FAIL. and then? montparnasse is closed. another fail. oh well. we then went to my old metro stop, la motte picquet grenelle, and walked to champ de mars cause dylan wanted to photograph the eiffel. i'm always up for one last visit to the eiffel. took some touristy pictures there. then walked back to the metro and went to my old monoprix! i'm totally trying to bring back my favorite cheese....haha we'll see if it works. now have 3 boxes of my favorite cereal, like 6 of my favorite chocolate bar, and some kinder buenos, a jar of nutella, and a jar of honey. and the cheese. and kinder surprise eggs as presents.

we then headed to odéon, finally mailed postcards, and went to a chocolate shop that had opened up there claiming to be the best ouvrier en france. it smelt delicious. i made some little chocolate gift baggies with assorted chocolates for a few friends and my parents. it was expensive. the man helping me was so funny - i wanted him to tie them up pretty and he took a whlie, so he gave me a free macaron to try! pamplemousse. not only my favorite french word, but one of my favorite fruits! grapefruit. wasnt as good as ladurée though. anyway the man was cute, when he handed me my bag, he said "voila, quatre petit sachets du bonheur!".

sidenote - when we got off the metro at odéon, there was a homeless man there in a coat and we could see his barelegs... and a bit more than barelegs. had nothing on under his coat. GROSS. my first penis seen in paris i believe....i remember i had a friend with study abroad who saw them everywhere hahaha.

after buying chocolate, we ate at my favorite creperie on rue saint andré des arts. i had a crèpe with jambon, épinards, and crème fraiche. possibly mushrooms i don't remember now. it was delicious though. walked to notre dame, went inside for warmth, eerie music was playing. then decided to meet sarah back at the apartment since this whole thing had taken like 5 hours. walked to chatelet and went back. we are now relaxing. i think i have successfully fit everything in my bag, although i will be carrying a painting around tomorrow. tonight i'm gonna head back into the city for one last crèpe à nutella!!!!! :( sarah is cooking raphael a birthday dinner, dylan probably staying and relaxing. heading out tomorrow, catching a taxi in the morning.

if i have time in the airport maybe i'll write a mushy gushy feelings post. but for now i feel ok about leaving... it's nice to have something to look forward to at home. but i will have to immerse myself in work/thesis, which is going to make me miss paris and doing nothing. it's been a good trip, and keeping my view of it as vacation helped a lot. it's hard though to transition from viewing this place as somewhere i could live and have lived to just a place to vacation and relax in. and gain a few pounds ;). my jeans still fit though, thanks to all the walking i think. ok i'm out for now. paris, je t'aime. i'll be back...i just don't know when :(

woke up and had to relocate to sarah's. luckily they'd already taken my small carry-on suitcase...it was very tiring schlepping my giant one on the metro. I got lost when I got off the tram, but some very nice French people helped me find the street. made it out here though, she lives in suresnes (pronounced sur-ennes). a very cute small studio apartment. literally, one room with an entrance way and bathroom. they gave me the air mattress, which is this super cute small thing compared to any single air mattresses in the states, and dylan and sarah are sharing the bed.

once they got ready, we left for angelina's. finally! got a delicious omelette (l'omelette angelina) with tomatoes, ham, cheese, onions, and mushrooms. it was so good! of course the chocolat chaud was to die for. i bought some powder form to take home, which isn't as good as buying the actual liquid form, but those were in giant glass bottles and would weigh too much. as it is my bag is super heavy.

post-angelina's we walked to one of the bridges with the love locks. great view over the seine, took a ton of pictures. involved walking through tuileries which was nice, and to see the louvre and all that. and musée d'orsay. after that bridge, walked back to concorde where sarah and dylan got vin chaud. we then walked through tuileries headed in the general direction of ile saint-louis, and got to pont des arts with more of the love locks. great views here, the sun was setting, it was beautiful. took a TON of pictures. we walked to ile saint louis, which involved strolling over ile de la cité with notre dame and all that. we went to a café on ile saint-louis and had berthillon ice cream, the famous ice cream/gelato. they had more vin chaud, i had a glass of white muscadet. it was very cold. went and met raphael and his brother, they ate greek food right near st michel, and it was sort of awkward but ok. then basically walked to chatelet and headed back cause it got late. all in all though, it was a really lovely stroll, as we were calling it. got to hit some major sights, it was beautiful out, not all gray and cloudy. cant wait to upload my pictures, but the internet sucks here so that won't be til i get back.

in sarah's we watched twilight with the commentary turned on. i have to say it was pretty hilarious. that's such a bad movie, listening to the commentary was funny. eventually went to bed- since the internet sucks, i couldnt watch the miami game! i was pretty upset really but not much i could do about it. first acc game ive missed in like 6 years. i set my alarm and woke up to follow the 2nd half on my new droid phone. the espn app is pretty good. managed to watch a few minutes of it on justin.tv on my phone but that was it. ooooh well i'll watch it when i get home!

very brief summary of the day .... woke up later than i intended. ran some errands - tried 3 different post offices and none of them were open! all had different times posted too. desperate to send these postcards... got someone a gift hahaha it involved a costume shop that had a line out the door. went to monoprix, which was "la folie, quoi" on new years eve, for some things. i had to glue a mug handle i broke back together shhh don't tell you can't tell it broke at all! showered, and eventually put on makeup and my outfit and waited for sarah and dylan.

so we had a very interesting evening really. sarah and dylan went to sarah's boyfriend's first and had already been drinking champagne. they got here, sarah fried foie gras which was surprisingly DELICIOUS, and we had 3 bottles of champagne to get through. dylan was already very drunk and is a huge lightweight, so sarah and i basically drank the 3 bottles. we took lots of pictures and ate bread and cheese as well. dylan eventually was falling asleep so we put her to bed in the bedroom around 11:30. sarah wanted to go back to raphael's, so we did, but i thought we were going to go out from there. what i didn't realize was how drunk sarah was. hung out in the apartment, which is really nice, with raphael and his brother and friends. i basically just sat there and listened to them speak french. i was fairly drunk myself, the room spun a bit, but i was enjoying listening to the french. eventually the friends disappeared so it was just me, sarah, and raphael.... and when it got to be 4 in the morning i told sarah she could stay and i'd see her tomorrow. so there were still tons of people out, which made me feel safer going back by myself. the metro wasn't stopping at every stop though so i had to walk a bit. i ended up calling le garçon to keep me company, which was good since i started off walking the wrong direction on blvd voltaire! oh well. made it back, and dylan was still asleep, so i went to bed by 5.

now comes the good part. woke up around 7 cause i heard dylan moving around. the room was spinning a bit still even though i felt completely sober. so dylan tells me she woke up alone and she had no idea where she was. she ended up drunkenly finding MY passport and concluded she was in leah's apartment (i wish). she drunkenly ate foie gras that had been sitting out all night (ewww) and called sarah like 5 times and then went back to sleep. so she was under the impression we had gone out and then shipped her home in a cab on her own... i informed her that no, in fact, we did not make it out to a single bar. and she didn't even make it til midnight hahaha. then she felt really sick (from the foie gras i bet) and we kind of laid around and slept off and on until 1:30ish. at one point she asked if i had anything to drink, and i was like oh you didn't see the water sarah and i left for you? but then i looked at the bedside table and didn't see the mug - well it had fallen, perfectly, into the vomit receptacle we also left at the side of the bed hahaha.

so still hadn't heard from sarah at all. we eventually got out of bed and watched french tv - reality tv, music videos, a hallmark made for tv version of journey to the center of the earth. then we decided to go walk around le marais and possibly eat falafel (well i was gonna eat, dylan didn't want food ever again). sarah imed me, her phone had died, so she was going to meet us here later. dylan and i headed to the marais, we briefly went into the musée de magie (magic!) but it was kind of lame. ended up at a café where dylan had port, and i had une assiette des frites! mmmm. we went back to the apt, sarah came, we lounged (sarah is waaaay hungover) and watched honey i shrunk the kids in french. amazing. and then friends in french. now they're gone, with one of my suitcases (the small one). tomorrow i am relocating to sarah's. for now, lazy evening here. i may go eat some of my comté cheese with grapes... whenever i drink, i just want to stuff my face constantly the next day.

so i have two more days, and i leave tuesday. what's left to do? climb montparnasse, angelina's (and some to take home), send the damn postcards, and buy chocolate for people. and with whatever room is left in my suitcase, stock up on chocolate, cereal, and possibly bring some cheese home!

thursday! well i slept pretty late since i was up til about 4am. did laundry. a word on laundromats - never having used one in the states, it's an interesting experience figuring out foreign versions. i actually needed someone's help with how to buy soap hahaha. after laundry and eating a still warm pain au chocolat the bakery next to the lavérie, i went up to Sacré Coeur. there were a ton of people, it was ridiculous. but nice to see sacré coeur, that may take 2nd place to notre dame for beautiful buildings in paris. there was a guy playing guitar and singing on the steps, which is not unusual of course, but the crowd that had gathered was big and people were singing along. i made a video of it, it made me smile and feel good. the little things. i walked around some side streets to find the square full of all the artists, and found the coolest mime ever. he was hilarious. i took pictures, should've made a movie of him. wandered through the art but not for long, and then headed back to the 11th.

had dinner at a café on the corner - salade chevre chauds! so. good. i wish i knew how they made their salad dressing here in all the cafés. went up to the apartment to bundle up and took off for grand palais - FOURTH attempt to see monet. the line was supposedly a 2 hour wait, and i got in line and chatted with a french woman in line behind me. i was bundled up pretty good, but my toes and nose were freezing. there was a man playing the flute with background music, i'd thought it was the museum playing music for us. this guy was making a killing - with him as our only entertainment while standing in line! so the wait was only an hour, barely. totally worth it too. this exhibit borrowed monet's from all over the world, and assembled an exhibit tracing his life and organizing paintings by themes. it showed how he progressed, and depending on what you think, how blind he got hahha. no, i just mean that the level of impressionism really increased later in his life, and honestly that's when i am most moved by his work. some of the later pieces that i'd seen pictures of, but seeing them up close and looking at the colors and brushstrokes, almost moved me to tears. it's amazing and so beautiful. as an oil painter, it's hard for me to imagine HOW he painted to achieve what he did. i would do anything to go back in time and watch him paint, for example, his meule (haystack) series. ok sorry for rambling about monet, but really, monet is my homeboy :)

there were a lot of people in the exhibit. french people are terrible in public places - not very conscious of others, they just stand in the way oblivious to everything, or walk smack into you. i think americans are more conscious of people around them. or maybe i just haven't been to a crowded museum exhibit in a long time. regardless - my favorite part of the exhibit was i think the part on his series. so many! i enjoyed how we got to walk through his life, and they had quotes he said on the walls. his paintings of the ocean had this quote above them that i wrote down because i liked it:

"...Vous ne pouvez vous faire une idée de la beauté de la mer depuis deux jours, mais quel talent il faudrait pour rendre cela, c'est à rendre fou."

enjoyed a crèpe à nutella on the champs after leaving the exhibit. headed back to the apartment. new years eve tomorrow! i cannot believe tomorrow is the last day of 2010. 2010 has been a very good year, made even better by the fact that i am now in paris :)

so i basically have had 5 days to myself, and will now spend 3 in the company of sarah and her friend dylan. not a bad vacation right? i've barely been lonely at all, really just a few times wishing i could share what i was seeing with someone.

all these posts are more like a journal for me right now. not promising entertainment or anything particularly interesting. i have a bad memory and don't want to forget this trip :)

so apologies if you're looking for funny stories. if i have any i'll post them separately.

today, wednesday, i woke up after finally sleeping through the night mostly. that felt good. first order of business was to get up to montmartre, to rue ordener where i used to live, and go to the street market right across from fabienne's apartment complex. it happens on wednesdays and saturdays, and since saturday is january 1st i figured today was my best bet. it was nice to be back there. i went to my favorite bakery, same cute girl works there, and got a pain au chocolat. SO GOOD. definitely my favorite pain au chocolat in the whole city.

the market was fairly unchanged as far as i could tell. i was a little worried about running into fabienne, things didn't end well with her even though they were great for most of the time. i bought some camembert chevre at the cheese stand, it was my favorite last time. also some comté just cause. and some apricots but natural ones! they're an unattractive brown color, but absolutely delicious. we dont have them in charleston that i've been able to find.

after the market, i caught the bus for a scenic tour of parts of the city i didn't necessarily feel like walking around - passed place de clichy, gare saint-lazare, opéra. i got off before opéra actually at hausmann to see les grands magasins. then i headed home cause i needed to eat lunch and had tortellini left over. then what... i went back to rue saint andré des arts, and bought some cute painted eiffel tower souvenirs for a few friends. wandered over to notre dame, i love notre dame. it's probably one of the top 3 most beautiful buildings in paris i'd say. sacré coeur is pretty beautiful too, and i guess the louvre? open to suggestions on this front. anyway, i took a ton of photos and had fun with my camera. there are so many tourists around this time of year too. i saw the same homeless man i saw on my last day in paris last year, with his two puppies bundled up on his stomach. strolled to the back of notre dame to see my favorite, the flying buttresses! then i ended up at the tip of ile de la cité, saw how high the seine really is (entire walkways are flooded out), and decided to go sit in a café and write postcards. the café was on ile saint-louis. i had a chocolat chaud which was SO GOOD! the real thing - pour chocolate into the cup first, then add the hot milk... mmmm. it was quite nice. it was foggy too, a damp cold. after chilling in the café i made my way across to the other side of paris and to pont marie metro stop, and back to the apartment to attempt try 3 for monet exhibit.

got to monet exhibit at 8:20...slightly later than i'd intended.... and they weren't letting anybody else get in line. i was so frustrated. i may look on EBAY for tickets at this rate! another try tomorrow night, gonna get in line earlier and tough it out. it made me pretty grouchy though, but i wandered down the champs and realized i hadn't been to la concorde yet. they had the big ferris wheel up, so that was nice to see, and i've always loved that obelisk ever since i was 11 and still had greek history fresh on my mind. a rickshaw passed me while i was walking BLARING dancing music....it was hilarious. we need musical rickshaws in charleston. from la concorde i headed to the seine. took lots of pictures, it was a great view of the eiffel and of it lighting up at 9pm. i got some good pictures. i love the seine at night - for some odd reason the lights on the water, they're always an orangey color, and in charleston when i'd drive over the harbor at night the lights would remind me of the seine and depress me. now i got reverse depression - just that i'm here enjoying it, but can't stay and have to go back to charleston where the lights will still remind me of the seine... oh well.
i turned the other way after photographing the eiffel and could see notre dame in the distance. got some nice pictures on that end as well. walked past the caroussel to the metro and TWO musical rickshaws passed me! it made me laugh.

for some reason my mood walking around after another monet disappointment was weird. just realizing all of the little things that make paris paris, and why i love it there. obviously the freedom, but the music - everywhere you go, there is music. in the metro, or church bells going off, or even those party rickshaws! whatever i won't ramble about this. it was just kind of a sad night for me because i was thinking about leaving and how i can't live here in the near future if ever. oh well, vacationing in paris isn't bad either!

went home, stayed up til 1 to watch the bball game. typical. it wasn't a great game by any means, but coach k moved into 2nd all time on the win list! passed dean smith. so of course i wanted to be up to see that. then these loud obnoxious delinquent french boys were outside at 3:30 in the morning on a wednesday making so much noise! i was so mad. and i was too scared to yell at them because you know, i'm a girl and american and alone here. eventually they left. but seriously, find a more creative place to stand around in a circle and smoke on a wednesday night.

quick note on day 2, night - we went back to longhop for monday night music trivia! sarah was very late, so it was me and idan for a while. i don't know if i'd ever hung out with just idan before, but he was pretty entertaining. always easy to talk to a fellow dukie generally speaking. anyway sarah came with her bro, and we totally sucked at trivia, but that's ok. for the final rounds, if the people participating in the "playoff" dont know the song, you can raise your hand and say the artist and get a free shot. i think we got about 4 of those - all the french people didnt know bands like dave matthews, and don mclean! i got that one (bye bye miss american pie...)

during the playoff thing, the guy up at the mic kept saying not to yell out anything or whisper so the people participating couldnt hear. he had JUST said "don't yell things out" but in french, when a song came on and literally 2 seconds later this american chick screams out the name of the artist. he looks at her, and goes - SHUT UP. it was HILARIOUS we were dying laughing. then he goes "well i guess i need to say that in english..." and repeats himself.

late night metro home, always a good time. no sketchy or funny stories unfortunately. i don't think i've had any good metro stories at all yet!

ok day 3 - tuesday

this marks my first attempt to get into grand palais to see the monet exhibit. attempt 1 - 4 hour long line. did not attempt it.

i then wandered the champs, there was a giant christmas market stretching both sides about halfway between concorde and the main part of the champs. typical stuff, i didn't buy anything. i wanted to eat a ladurée for lunch, but wasn't quite lunch time yet, so i went to the st. michel/odéon area to buy some postcards. got to travel through some familiar metro stations, like chatelet, where my old favorite orchestra still plays! headed to ladurée, which is a pretty nice café and a little pricey, but i wanted to treat myself to one good meal. last time i was here on my last day i had lunch there and it was one of the best things i've ever eaten in my life. this wasn't quite as good - i got the special, it was some form of chicken called chapon i think. that came with white truffle sauce risotto. it was definitely really good though. they put me upstairs in the nice fancy room though so i felt kinda awkward there by myself. ooohh well i won't be back for a while so who cares! the lunch came with dessert, i got a chocolate éclair. then downstairs bought some macarons! of course. flavors tried this time - 2 kinds of chocolate, praliné, vanille, rose something, green apple!, citron, and café. the green apple was good, the african chocolate one was good, and the vanille and praliné may be my favorites. café is always good. just if you were wondering. rose is always an interesting experience, it's like eating really tasty perfume, or rose petals or something. ok moving on.

after ladurée i actually don't remember what i did. i think i just read in the apartment for a bit, because i was determined to try grand palais later that evening. i'd been told to come around 8. OH! i went to monoprix! god i love monoprix. french grocery stores in general... i mean man. i bought my favorite chocolate to bring home, a jar of nutella (the real thing, they dont even make plastic jars here), some of my favorite cereal, my favorite cheese, and my favorite pasta! and some apples. and milk of course. that cereal is so good. i am DEFINITELY bringing back as many boxes as i can fit in my suitcase after i get everything else in. i could eat it for all 3 meals a day i think. stopped after monoprix for a demi-baguette that i ate with the cheese at home. the pasta i got, it's just monoprix brand tortellini, but i had it for lunch today and damn is it good. seriously good. everything is better here honestly i know this gets repetitive but it never ceases to amaze me. i JUST realized i havent had any FRITES yet!!!! i will be fixing this tomorrow.

ok after monoprix i chilled, then tried grand palais around 730. grand palais, attempt 2. the wait was still 1.5-2 hours...and i could've waited but i wasnt dressed for waiting outside and didnt even have my book with me. so i figured tomorrow night will be better and i can prepare for it. let me just cut to the chase and say, in fact, NO, attempt 3 was also a fail. i got there at 8:20 and they weren't letting anybody else get in line. i am so frustrated! tomorrow night, 7:30, i'm going and waiting in line for reals. ugh.

anyway since my evening plans were ruined last night, i watched how to train your dragon online. fantastic movie.

i'm trying to think if anything funny or random happened yesterday.

i'm not even going to read that last post... whatever. it was 4:30 in the morning so don't judge me if anybody is reading this! also my new droid phone has issues keeping the time right...so i dunno if i missed my alarm or just turned it off, but i slept until 10:30. but i didn't fall asleep until 5ish so oh well. i need to figure out a different way to set an alarm though. so after that kind of late start --

today was a pretty good day. it felt like i was on vacation...just me, taking a personal vacation for myself. first order of business was to get a working french cell phone. i paid the champs d'elysées a brief visit and went to the virgin megastore....i think people cut in front of me in line like twice before i gave up and went to the good ol "the phone house", where i originally bought my phone in 2007. sidenote - 2007?!? man. i've been in paris every year now for 4 years. i either have a serious problem, or am just awesome.

anywaaay. got the phone working, and went to eat lunch at café sully. café sully is one of our old favorites, right near where we used to have class back in the day on rue st. antoine by the bastille. i hadn't been feeling so hot up to this point in the day, so i ordered a tea for caffeine and to steam out my congestion. for lunch i had potage aux légumes (puréed veggie soup basically) and ratatouille. it was delicious! perfect amount of food too. i was very conflicted because i obviously MUST eat a salade chevre chaude... its my favorite. and they had one on the menu. but i really really wanted the soup, and i don't regret my decision.

it was in this café, where yes i was by myself (in a window seat, best place to be in a café), that i felt like i was really just on vacation. i haven't felt like that in a while, i don't know how to describe it, but just that i'm taking time off from my life and doing what i want. kind of a nice feeling. i understand why parents and working professionals need vacations now i think. i dont know if i ever appreciated the time away as much as i do right now. my problem is that i'm almost always going to want to vacation here! how can i see the world if i keep coming back to paris? this is a problem.

moving on. post-lunch, i headed to the 6th, probably my favorite arrondissement. i located the longchamp store and hardly even needed a map, i'm pretty familiar with that area. they didn't have the color bag i wanted so no purchases made sadly. the woman was kind of rude to me too. then i decided to stroll and make my way to odéon by memory, where EDUCO has its headquarters and i spent a ton of time back in the day. i walked by st. sulpice church, which is a cool one but being renovated right now, and they had a cute little christmas time market set up. i walked through the vendors there, was given samples of honey, salami, cheese, and du vin chaud (hot wine)! the man at the salami/cheese place talked to me for a few minutes and told me "au revoir jolie mademoiselle". always nice to be called pretty by a french man hahahha. although i'd forgotten how much more obviously french people will stare at you... oh well. he also told me that i speak french well :). i bought some lavender honey cause it is way too good. the woman was very chipper and i liked how she spoke french - slow, not because i'm american, it was just how she spoke. makes it more fun to follow the cadence and pronunciation of everything. she very seriously told me about 3 times how to pack the honey in my suitcase to take home.

i did find odéon, visited my old starbucks (no hervé sadly), and strolled around those streets. looked at postcards to send people, didn't buy any. bought dinner at eric kayser boulangérie - une demi-baguette, une quiche aux épinards, et une tarte chocolate aux poires. the baguette is for my cheese and grapes that i bought yesterday. after that i bought UNE CREPE A NUTELLA from my favorite crèpe stand right by the odéon metro! so. good. so. good. should i say it again? ok moving on

took a long luxurious metro ride home where i listened to music and read my book. the book has a few scandalous parts and i really hoped the lady next to me couldn't read english! awkward.

back in the apartment, everest is causing trouble as usual. he is intent on scratching everything of mine. i fed him he seems happier now. pretty cute cat, but not cuddly like my old kitty/jack. he's actually sitting by the window staring at me right now. i'm chillin out here on the couch right next to the portable heater until music trivia at longhop tonight! i'm pretty excited about that, we went every monday last fall when i was here. they kept up the tradition when i left too. i'm exhausted though but hopefully i'll perk up when i'm hanging with some familiar faces/dukies ! (sarah and idan).

a word on the baguette. i think i say this every time i come here. why why whyyy cant america figure out how to make bread like this?!? the exterior...perfectly crunchy.. yet the interior is so deliciously soft and chewy. it's so freaking good! in the boulangérie today i got a whiff of baking bread, still think heaven will smell like that. come on america.

what to do tomorrow? i may visit the special monet exhibit at grand palais. hoping sarah and/or idan will go to angelina's with me soon for some chocolat chaud.

so ever since i left paris in 2009, i've been pretty depressed about it. and as i got underway with my masters and developing a thesis project, i realized i will be too busy to make it over to paris after 2010. SOOO here i am, a year and a month since i was last in paris. a holiday trip, for new years, basically alone in paris. my friend sarah is still here, but at the moment her family is in town so i can't monopolize her time. it's 4am and i cant sleep because i napped today, bad idea. i wanted to write what's on my mind and then try sleeping again...

1. what am i doing here? all throughout the summer until i booked this trip, i felt like i had to go. i had to go or else it would be a solid 2 years before i could go again, and that thought was just killing me. but now that i'm here... i remember how i felt... but i can't help but feel that maybe i should've stayed away. it's like ending a relationship - after the break-up, if you keep in touch and even have a few flings with the person, you can never move on. so i had to break up with paris, and it was terrible, but now i've come back. and i am just not sure what to do with myself (minus eating!), and am concerned that this will do more harm than good to my mental/emotional state. ok that's all very depressing and strange probably, but it's pretty much how i feel. i think the worst part is that it feels like i never left... like i could just stay here, and do what i did before, and the past year of grad school could have never happened. BUT i can't think like that! so i'm going to try to hold onto this perspective - i am here, because i want to be here, and i am having a bit of an indulgence before really buckling down on my masters thesis. and it'll be more like a final goodbye for the forseeable future, because unless a job opportunity presents itself in my field, i don't think i will be able to come back and stay. (i also wish i could hate it here or something so it'd be easier. but nooooo)

2. what i did today! we all know i have a bad memory, and i don't want to forget this trip. after a very hectic and stressful time with delta rescheduling my flight like 5 times cause of atlanta weather, i had a perfect travel day. not a single issue, and i arrived at 6am and got my luggage. made it to cat and karim's apartment - lugged my suitcase up 3 flights of stairs, it killed me - and had to wake up karim's little bro. felt pretty bad about that. i reacquainted myself with the apartment and everest, then went out and strolled. it was only 8 am or so at this point, and FREEZING. ice and snow everywhere! it's sunday though so nothing was open at all. i found an atm at bnp where i can withdraw without a fee and got some euros. took some photos. strolled back, and decided to nap since there was nothing to do. (this was clearly a bad idea cause here i am still awake). anyway napped, showered, and eventually went back out in search of an open boulangérie. i made my way to the école militaire metro stop, right by champ de mars and the tour eiffel, and got a pain au chocolat at a bakery. so good. then i sat in a café on the corner and had tea and people-watched and talked to peeps on gchat on my new awesome droid phone. i started a book too. eventually i decided to brave the cold again and went to visit my old friend, mr eiffel. if i knew how to put pics on here i would, took some good ones. i walked around champ de mars and got to see it light up (one of my favorite things ever). then i headed back near the metro and bought some food at the grocery store (carrefour) - i got a sandwich, some chocolat mousse, some CHEESE, and MILK! i was so excited. oh and grapes. headed back on the metro, fed everest, ate food, and watched friends in french on tv for a while. then i got in bed and have been up twice :/ i think i'll try sleeping again soon.

3. speaking french. i was pretty worried - i brought a book in french so i could get my mind back into it, and i watched home alone in french on the plane. the good news though - so far, when i speak to people in french, nobody has answered in english! that took me a while to achieve originally with study abroad, so i was pretty pumped that even though i think i sound terrible with my accent and all right now, they still think i know french. hoping it will only improve from here on out. i really do love french. and french people. and france.

here's to seizing and enjoying the moment, and just living indulgently for a week. paris, je t'aime, pour toujours

alright. i know it's been a while. so let's go back a bit here -

it was a sunday, sometime in october, and i realized i was out of dental floss. now you see this was important to me because back in the day, i had a ton of little cavities from not flossing...so i floss every night. i went to the only place open on sundays - Franprix (supermarché). it's a pretty small grocery store all things considered, and i could only find one thing of dental floss, so i bought it.

turns out this dental floss is CHEAP ASS SHIT. i realized later what was wrong with it - it wasn't covered in a coating of wax (cirre), so it tended to fray while i was flossing. there is this one spot where i have a hard time with the floss, and so this one night, the floss is stuck. and i'm yanking on it like a genius, and the entire thing rips, leaving a piece in between my 2 back molars. i can feel it, the pressure, and it feels like my teeth are moving on that whole side of my mouth. this is not made anymore comfortable by the fact that i have a built-in retainer down there, so i'm just imagining the strain on my cemented wire and, well, sort of flipping out. why am i flipping out? BECAUSE I CAN'T GET THE FLOSS OUT. oh i left out the best part of this story - i was trying to go to sleep early because i was getting sick and wanted to be well-rested for my impending trip to edinburgh the next day. well, i spend about an hour working on getting the floss out, to no avail. i tried tweezers, i tried using more floss (made it worse), i tried needles, safety-pins...i even threaded one of the things i use to floss my built-in retainer through my teeth, which essentially involved poking an accidental hole in my gum...well it failed. all of it failed. and fabienne was like, "ah bien, le dentiste!" and i was like hmmm LE DENTISTE OK

sigh.

i wake up early - tired, and very sick (coughing so much in fact that a man on the street told me to quit smoking!). i go get the number to a dentist from the pharmacy. alas, they cant see me. fabienne starts calling all these dentists in our arrondissement, but all of them are too busy. so she finally calls HER dentist, who is out of town, but his partner agrees to see me. so i have an appointment, with enough time to get to the airport and all that to leave for scotland...i figured this should be easy.

one thing though - i have heard multiple horror stories about french dentists. windows open during surgery, no novocaine (my friend ellie had a filling fall out and the guy filled it without novocaine), etc. well i get there - first of all, doctors' offices here are so weird. they're like all nice and fancy apartments, pretty much, really elaborately decorated. anyway. the guy is nice, i explain what happened, and he starts going to work on my tooth. i didn't notice this at first - but um, no gloves. hands all up in my mouth for a good 20 minutes whlie he tries to get the floss out. well, the lack of gloves really didn't bother me when he started pondering if that was a clear filling in between my teeth. then he announces he will have to remove the filling to get the floss out. pretty sure i just let out a big sigh, and told him to do what he needed to do. i couldn't stay the way i was, it was too uncomfortable. (new vocab words - filling=une plombage, floss=le fil dentaire)

... commence drilling. sans gloves. sans novocaine. ow? yes, it hurt, but honestly my mom flipped out more than i did. i sort of squinched up my eyes and reminded myself that i've had worse pain (namely breaking my ankle), which is true, drilling without novocaine wasn't that bad. at least when he turns the drill off it stops hurting you right away. doesnt mean i dont appreciate how spoiled we are at home with the novocaine usage. i even hinted to the man about it, how we use novocaine aux etat-unis, and he was like oh we do too! dont think he got that i meant FOR REMOVING AND REFILLING FILLINGS

well he refills the filling and the whole thing cost 40 euros - not bad at all. would have been well over 100 bucks at home. so i'm thinking, socialized medicine for the win! and off i go to scotland. have a lovely time, and generally try to avoid chewing on that side cause i'm a little nervous about the frenchified filling. mostly cause when i actually did floss it i was pretty sure a piece fell off.

and yes. i get back to paris, and the entire filling falls out while i'm casually eating a baguette (typical, right?). so i'm pretty upset and am sort of blaming this dentist. my aunt's friend gives me the name of a dentist here that uses "american standards" - YEAH RIGHT. EXCUSE TO RIP PEOPLE OFF. i go to this man, it's all fancy and super sterile, the nurses have little sterile booty things on their shoes, like hospital-style. and he looks in there for literally 60 seconds tops, says hmmm a few times, and announces to me that i need some sort of special "in-lay" filling (possibly talking about a crown i'm still not sure) - and how much will it cost? 520 euros. yes, that is right and not a typo - FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY EUROS. and it will take 2 sessions. well, i inform him i am departing for the USA in 2 weeks where i actually have health insurance (i think?), and he says that is fine and i can wait. so i'm like ok good, this whole thing took 10 minutes, i can go. NO. FALSE. HE CHARGES ME 80 EUROS FOR A CONSULTATION. of course he leaves me with his assistant first, so she tells me quatre-vingt euros, and i say "excusez-moi? pour 60 secondes dans ma bouche?" and she says yes, it's 80 euros. yeah FUCK YOU LADY. well i am still bitter in case you cant tell. cause i paid it - i am bad at making scenes. my mother would have made a scene. i was thinking to myself, you should yell! raise hell! but i couldn't do it. maybe i should work on that.


WELL THERE YOU HAVE IT. here i am, a solid week or so after this last incident, with a hole in my tooth. i dont chew on that side, still floss it probably 5 times a day, brush about 3 times a day, occasionally do a warm salt water rinse, and rinse with listerine after breakfast and dinner and anytime i'm home in between. i've also drunk cidre through a straw at music trivia. it doesn't hurt too bad, only water/cold things bother it, so i think it's alright. i also bought orthodontist wax (was looking for this temporary filling stuff you can put in yourself but i couldnt find it anywhere) - so i fill it with wax sometimes, i feel like it's better to keep all the liquids and food junk out of there. orthodontist wax brings back memories of braces!! crazy.

anyway i think that's about it. i'm terrified i'm gonna get back to my dentist a week from tomorrow following thanksgiving and he's going to tell me my tooth is seriously fucked. we shall see. maybe i'll update the blog with the conclusion of leah's horrible tooth story. lesson to be learned? i would just avoid dentists here. and if you need one, stick with the normal french ones that wont charge you 80 effing euros for a "consultation". fuck that guy. if he was right about needing a special filling (or a crown or whatever), then it means the other dentist didn't do a bad job...or maybe he did a shitty filling and my tooth cracked and that's why i need a crown. we will never know. try not to lose fillings in france.

dear paris,
i dont want to leave you.
despite your lack of good dental care.



to be continued.

love,
leah



PS WE SAW KAPLAN TODAY! AHHHH RUN AWAY

what are the chances you see the same person twice on the paris metro? first of all there are countless lines, and each train comes like every 5 minutes, and each train has a bunch of cars. the chances of getting on the same car of the same train at the same time at the same stop and seeing someone you've seen before....SLIM TO NONE.

so today i saw this asian man with curly hair, he was pretty distinct looking. i've totally seen him before, couldnt tell you exactly where, i think it was on the same line but near a different stop. anyway. small world really.

off to scotland tomorrow! my only trip. i cant bear to leave paris... but my friend carrie is in vet school in edinburgh for 4-5 years, so we are hanging out this weekend. and i've never been to scotland, so it should be good. peace out.

what is considered "gangsta" fashion in the US? baggy pants, jerseys, giant teeshirts, colorful sneakers? it seems to vary. well here i have noticed one thing - all the hip (hip in the hip hop way) people wear yankees stuff. yankees hats of all shapes and colors, yankees jackets, yankees everywhere. and i'm like really guys? you probably dont even know how baseball works...or know about the yankees/red sox rivalry....or anything. it's just like "yankees" = american and for some reason that has become a fashion statement here. at the lil wayne concert we seriously were like oh, so we should have just worn a yankees hat and we'd fit right in. and be gangsta. parisian gangsta. DIT QUUOOIIII

There are always people reading on the metro, whether it's the paper or a book. With the newspapers, it just proves the French (Europeans in general) keep up with the news much better than the average American. And papers (and the news on TV here) really are GLOBAL news. They aren't only concerned with what is going on in France, it's all of Europe and all of the world. That really bothers me about the US, how self-centered our news is. It results in self-centered Americans. Anyway with the books - I swear they are always reading literature. Today this girl across from me was reading Dostoevsky!! I've seen Freud and Flaubert too, and more I just can't remember. Needless to say, when I bring my French version of LOTR on the metro with me, I try to discretely cover the cover and pretend that I, too, am reading real literature...not a 50 euro cent used copy of Return of the King (Le Seigneur des Anneaux - Le Retour du Roi) with a scary pic of Sauron on the front that I bought at a yard sale down the street...

EDIT - french people reading real literature all the time was confirmed by a french person.

holy shit, it's november. after just about an entire month of having friends visiting, i am free! it's sort of exhausting, keeps you busy, but i am enjoying passing this rainy sunday pretty much cooped up in my room with my only excursion being to buy ingredients to make guacamole. (which is delicious am eating it now). i leave in like, freaking 24 days. not fair. my body is falling apart too - "good" foot bothers me, lower back gets sharp pains, now my upper back/neck is SO stiff, i need a massage desperately.

anyway, i really wouldnt know where to start in this update. i jotted down a few things so we can start there and see where this takes me.

a while ago, i took victor (10 year old i babysit for) to see g-force. yes, i said it. i had to go see that godawful guinea pig movie - i mean really disney, please get it together. youre only good movies are done with pixar now. i will say that this wasnt the absolute worst movie i've ever seen. the chihauha (spelling?) one would have been the worst. but anyway, i got paid to take the little boy, have popcorn, and watch guinea pigs as secret agents fly through the air in 3d. in the biggest most ridiculous 3d glasses of all time. i shouldve taken a picture.

on a sidenote - i love the variety of movie theatres you can find here. sometimes they are small, like family owned things with one or two theatres, and some are GIANT typical big city theatres with stadium seats (the one we went to was the biggest i've seen yet at montparnasse). anyway it's interesting - are all big cities like this? there are also the theatres in between, with cozy little rooms but still show like 8 movies at a time. those might be my favorite (for a location, there are 3 near odéon metro)

another sidenote - victor and i also went bowling last week. amazing. he had only been like once or twice and didnt want to go, but definitely loved it hahaha. i let him beat me (shh dont tell)

i also babysit for oriane, which basically consists of me playing chaperone and following her around. she is very independent and always knows where we need to go/what needs to be done. so on wednesdays i usually get treated to a free lunch - sushi, or pizza! -and then take her to violin. sometimes we watch friends in french, or just french tv. but we always ride the bus!! riding the bus is great fun, i should have figured it out last time but i was too scared. a few things i have noted on my bus rides with oriane -
1. how do old americans figure out the bus system? makes me a little ashamed it took me so long. these old people were falling all over and being really typically american, but they were ON a bus, and getting off at the right stop. and i also noted that even american cigarettes smell different! another note on americans - was at a falafel place with celeste (on rue des rosiers by saint-paul metro in the marais, amazing) - anyway this woman goes up to the server, in english, "excuse me, WHERE is the WASH ROOM". I MEAN REALLLY LADY. you cant even TRY to say "excusez-moi, toilettes?" in french?!??!! just spewing out english. i was making fun of her and the waiters laughed at me. i'm really not a snob towards all americans, just americans that act like that woman. the worst part? i think she and her husband were jews. american jew fail in the jewish quarter of paris eating falafel.
2. back to things i've seen on the bus - a store called "wood'stock II"
3. a bus with an ad saying "le roi de boudin" - king of blood sausage? ew?

new topic/theme of blog --> oh paris, i love you. je t'adore. je t'aime. t'es mon amour.

1. coca lite (diet coke) is delicious here. i dont believe there's no sugar in it. SO GOOD. (the frites are also amazing. and onion soup.)
2. crutches are better - they look funny to us, but they are made so that people HAVE to use them correctly! genius
3. my café i go to before i pick up oriane - the one with gnomes in the flower boxes - it's just adorable. for photos, see fb. i have yet to actually eat there, i just go have a chocolat chaud or a jus d'orange pressé. love the people there. and their little jack russells that bark at people BUT NOT AT ME, WIN.
4. chocolat chaud. hot chocolate. amazing. angelina's? heaven in a CUP. go if you haven't been.
5. speaking of heaven - the smell of bread baking when you walk by a boulangérie. no, i'm serious, this is what heaven will smell like people. i have never smelt anything so amazing in my life.
6. speaking of boulangéries - i may write an ode to a baguette. look for that in the future. it may go something like this - oh french baguette, baguette de tradition (pronounced tra-dee-zeeon), your crusty exterior is no disguise for your mouth-watering soft and delicious interior. ok it needs work. the point? HOW DO THEY DO IT?!?!? AND WHY CANT ANYBODY ELSE DO IT TOO?!?!?! i feel the same way about pizza in italy. and croissants. and crepes/crepe stands.
7. speaking of crepes - i got one while walking, and the guy didn't even make it fresh which always makes me a little bitter, but tell me how it can still be delicious when it was made probably at least an hour before i walked by?!?!?!
8. did i just write almost every one of these points on food? this is a problem.

we can move on to something else - wide array of cultural experiences.
1. lil wayne (amazing)
2. salon du chocolat (hilarious/amazing)
3. le roi lion musical (absolutely amaaaaaaazing)
4. all the musées of course, and we can lump in all the churches too (musée marmottan, je t'adore! check it out if you come to paris and haven't seen it). i still should go by the rodin museum i think. i love that all over paris there are these random ass churches, like you go eat in a new area and bam! another cool church to see. and last night, by plaza madeleine, there was a giant roman-style church/parthenon i swear i've never seen before ever. maybe i'll go see it during the day when i'm not trying to chase down a cab at 3am..
5. versailles. so many tourists. worth seeing again though, it had been 11 years after all. why should we have to pay more to see the fountains go off on weekends? laaaame.
6. break dancers on the champs d'elysées, pretty cool
7. duplex. have been every week since sarah/erica got here. love you duplex
8. music trivia at longhop - have also been just about every monday. we made it to the finals last monday!!!! SO CLOSE TO THAT BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE - maybe next time (tomorrow!).
9. the 6ième/latin quarter in general - where longhop is - other bars i like would be chez georges, and le violon dingue (the bartender is the one who beat us at music trivia at longhop pfftttt). chez georges is super cool cause it's only french people pretty much. longhop and violon dingue are anglophone bars, but there are still frenchies there too. so many bars in the 6th!!  last year we had great fun at a place greisy knew, the owner was named moon, but we have no idea where it is or what it's called. must figure this out soon
10. how could i leave off the metro? an entire cultural experience all by itself. late one weekend night, there were some guys rapping on my line 13. not for money, not begging, just hooked up an amp/mic and were rapping. everybody was actually smiling (usually no facial expression on metro), and they were pretty good! hard to understand, but good. another metro story - crazy man!!! i got on a train on line 10 to go to longhop for trivia, and this black man was just ranting at people. it was funny though cause he kept apologizing too. he talked super fast, like crazy-person style, and would go walk past all these girls/ladies and say "ah madame l'amour ne passe pas par ici non plus, je suis désolé...". i think he meant we cant have his love anymore!!! hilarious. sarah saw the SAME guy, i think he was singing for her though. <3 the metro

well that is a pretty good update i think. i must say, i think that having people here all month has deteriorated my french. now it's just me and fabienne again, so maybe i can start blabbing off in french. like when i first got here, i think the only english i spoke was to this blog and to people on aim/skype/fb.

as i think about leaving paris/france, what makes me the most sad at this moment is not being surrounded by french anymore. i really do love french.

now the question of the month:
will i be back?
*dun dun dun*

just saw the astroturf van parked on the street, and they definitely covered it with plastic flowers!!! i may have to take a picture.

no updates in a while...sorry aileen....i've been BUSY!! friends here constantly. in other news, i'm going to be a bridesmaid!! ahhhh

i will write a post about all the random ass reason i love france and french people soon, i took some notes. i think i have less than a month now :(

happy halloween tomorrow!! hoping we go to duplex for the um, 7th? time... <3 duplex

i never wrote about lil wayne.  so we get there like 2 hours early, and there's already a mob outside. takes FOREVER to get inside and i had to pee so bad i thought i was going to pee my pants. got to eavesdrop on some hilarious french guys convo though. once inside, we just had general admission tickets, so we got settled and i peed haha. then we were hungry - only in france - we had baguette sandwiches! at a concert. god i love france.

the concert itself  -
opening act, french rappers, were really good! dont know who they were but we want to find out.

to be continued. was distracted by news of kville.

went back to longhop for more music trivia tonight.... didn't get to order any screaming orgasms from the bartender though. but he did help us cheat! we still lost (even with google on my blackberry...). we will be back next monday! (and the bartender is sort of cute?)

there will be a post coming soon about the lil wayne concert, because it was amazing and i want to record my memories since i will forget later since my memory sucks!!! on the way back, first this metro driver made an announcement and all i caught was something about security, and people started getting off the train. so i grab celeste cause i'm thinking it's something bad, but a lot of the people stayed on the train...so i ask some man what happened and he is going on and on about a match de foot (soccer game) and a party and i'm just like what?!? then i realize, after the 2nd announcement, that the next station was closed to the public for security reasons because all these people were in the streets pARTYING because their soccer team (tunisia) won! so we go by, it's an outdoor metro, and there are TONS OF PEOPLE all with flags just jumping and singing and drinking....it was very entertaining. and i have never experienced the metro crew closing an entire station to the public cause i guess they were worried about public safety? 

anyway next metro 1st - on the next line, we sit across from a man. who pulls out a bottle of what i think was whiskey, takes a swig, and offers it to me, celeste, and the man sitting with us. we all say no. the drunk guy laughs. then he talks to us in english and french, at one point proclaiming that "jesus is lord, and all that, yes?" i believe i shrugged. so yes, a drunk man sharing his whiskey on the metro told me jesus is lord. when we got up to get off, he reached out to shake my hand...so i shook his hand....and once outside of the metro wiped it down with rain water. i think he was just drunk and friendly, not really a creeper.

I THINK I ATE TOO MUCH CHEESE. or maybe that salad i had in the fridge for a few days had gone bad. let's just say, my stomach is not in a comfortable place, and it is extremely awkward to walk THROUGH the living room past martin and his friend to get to the bathroom. my one consolation is that they are french (for an explanation of this statement, i may have to just write another post later on). now victoria advised me to pretend i am doing my hair or something, an elaborate scheme - but then i informed her that, you see, the toilet is SEPARATE from the rest of the bathroom stuff. this is actually fairly common here. the toilet is by the front door next to the kitchen...you have to traverse the entire apartment to get to it... awkward. i hope i dont have like, salmonela from that lettuce or something.

well i had jotted down a few things and had been meaning to update, and then i got this facebook wall post that has spurred me to update faster:

Aileen Liu SOMEBODY hasn't updated their blog in almost a week. And SOMEBODY ELSE is mad about it.

so yes! where to start? food-related things first:
1. sarah, erica, and i went to eat in a café near les halles earlier this week. we ordered "soupe à l'oignon", onion soup. please note that they dont call it FRENCH onion soup - clearly, we are in france. and it is BEAUCOUP MEILLEUR ICI. so good. i rarely eat french onion soup in the states because it is salty - this was perfect. nomnom.

2. celeste is here as of wednesday, and so far everything we have eaten as proved my argument over and over that EVERYTHING is better here. whether that be the obvious things, like bread/cheese/pastries...but also carrots ... grapes ... macdonalds. yes, we tried it. we went to a mall at la défense today, it's actually outside the péripherie of the main part of paris. and we tried macdonalds because it was so CHIC looking and fancy! more like a panera. it wasn't half bad, the burger actually tasted like you know, a burger. but we probably wont eat there again. why eat macdo when you can eat baguettes and croissants and brie? 

3. i dont know what other food-related things there are, we have eaten several crepes a nutella (see name of blog!), and they are just so fantastic. last time i was here, it took me probably 2 months before i'd be able to go to a crepe stand and NOT order a nutella crepe. maybe i can try a citron sucre one soon (those are SO GOOD like lemonade on a crepe).

*intermission - while writing this entry, breathless by the corrs is playing in my itunes. it is part of my new project, to compile a very extensive list of our favorite 90s songs. so far i have 46 songs. submissions welcome.

back to the mall we went to today - we walk out of the metro, and it's all SHINY! big shiny buildings. and a big square, no cars, just people. it was bizarre, look for a picture or 2 on facebook. we were rather disoriented and stood there for a while because it doesn't exactly look anything like paris hahaha. celeste said she felt like she was in the year 2050. and on the subject of parisian malls - so much better, bakeries within the mall....a toys r us with a giant shrek in the door....a giant target-like store that took up 3 floors....i dont even know what else.

*intermission #2 - 98 degrees, it's the hardest thing. CANT LET YOU SEE WHAT YOU MEAN TO ME, WHEN MY HANDS ARE TIED AND MY HEART'S NOT FREE - WE'RE NOT MEANT TO BEEEEEE


the night sarah and erica and i had onion soup, we were chilling in macdo so they could use the internet, and sarah told us later the man sitting near us clearly listening to our conversation also had a ginormous penis/hardon that she could see....GROSSSS. we all felt dirty after that. ew ew ew ew. erica commented that she doesnt know what it is about paris, but she sees a lot of big penises hahahahahhaa. i cant say i have noticed the same thing, and i am going to say this is a very good thing. nobody needs to be noticing that in public.

fabienne has been out of town and martin is here right? well he smokes inside at night. and like really, how much until i get lung cancer from 2ndhand smoke?!?!?!? it's killing me. you'd think i would've been prepared for all the smoking here but i just really cant handle cigarettes.

did i write about starting oil painting classes? the atelier (OH WAIT ANOTHER INTERMISSION - pretty fly for a white guy.) ummmm ANYWAY, the atelier has still lifes, and a model (nude) every time. i started with a still life, and it was just super boring. i hate still lifes. painting pumpkins could have been worse i suppose, but doing one of these every week is just not happening. and as for the nude model - first of all, people and portraits are HARD. second of all, i would like to try to paint one of the models at some point, but to do that every week too!?!? i dont care what the other students think, i WILL be the only one in there painting from photographs. kiss my american oil-painting butt, i'm paying!

on the way to painting last tuesday, the train stopped at this station and was sitting there for a bit. this isn't that uncommon, but then the driver announced something and i had my music blasting, so i didn't hear. (quick aside about music-listening in public - the book i'm reading, the guy got a walkman and loved it cause he could be in public and still sort of be in his own private world and people would leave him alone. i like that too, but it has downsides, like not absorbing the culture around you and stuff. so i only listen to my ipod depending on my mood). anywaaaay the announcement said something about "terminus" meaning everybody had to get off the train because it was ENDING at this random-ass station. so all the french people start grumbling and looking at each other incredulously - i love this, because the metro is usually like zombie people as fabienne says - everybody has their "dead" metro face on, and nobody really talks to each other unless they knew each other already. but metro problems lead to french bonding! another train came so everybody managed to get where they needed to go, and the french bonding was brought to an end.

*intermission - will2k, will smith. MILLENIUM CELEBRATION. i know it's the very very end of the 90s...but it's will smith rapping, hence, 90s.

by the way about painting - what should i paint??? since it may be hard to brnig my paintings back with me, i was thinking of doing paris-related things. maybe do one for fabienne, and do one for my friends for their new SUPER CUTE apartment! it's teeny but really adorable. if they are still here this summer, which they very well may be (especially sarah hah), i want to come stay there again depending on what i'm doing with my life. oh! i applied to college of charleston grad program in marine bio. now that i've been here for over a month, i cant remember why. can i stay here forever? 

babysitting has been going well. victor is super cute and basically likes to play on his computer or play uno (my shuffling skills have much improved). his dad wants us to like, go out and DO things though. i think this coming week we're gonna go to the museum of natural history, which has a zoo-like area outside. it's going to be awesome. apparently there is a hall of dinosaurs and of evolution and it's just lke a big mess of dino bones.... exciting. i did research on "paris with kids". lots of parcs ... but i'm excited about this museum! i also want to go to the aquarium, maybe we can do that too. of course why i want to go is to see if my hot friend from last time still works there!!!! salut erick ...

my mood is "giddy" because i cannot wait for lil wayne tomorrow at paris zénith. we are going to pregame with the half-empty bottle of absolut we stole from duplex thursday night. did you hear? sarah and i are going to duplex every weekend until i leave...just to say we did. last time, they ripped us off and gave us coke without the rum. therefore it is totally acceptable to take 1/3 a bottle of absolut. and pregame lil wayne with it. give it to you by jordan knight is currently playing on itunes.

What is lacking in Paris? Let's hope the conclusion, after the next 2 months here, will remain this - not much.

for now i can say
1. stars. common problem with big cities
2. the ocean. personal thing of course
3. bagels. see previous post
4. krispey kreme. because everywhere in the world needs a krispey kreme. because honestly, have you ever had anything that comes close to a krispey kreme donut? impossible to replicate and/or replace
5. what we consider "real" showers. this is an ethnocentric thing to say, but a "real" shower is nice
5.5. the internet doesnt play jon stewart or colbert episodes. we found a solution! yay for technology. this isn't quite lacking then
6. a.ho

having trouble thinking of more things, so...
7. easy access to college sports channels (aghem i need my duke basketball please)

8. good ranch dressing (not sure if this is lacking, but it seems to be. it's at least harder to find..)

ive been here 3 weeks and it's been great with my living situation even though i was sort of worried at first. even with the son here in these small quarters, it's been fine. yeah so they fight sometimes...or a lot.....but whatever. um, i get home tonight, sarah and erica are coming for dinner, martin says he's going back to nice soon and he isn't staying for dinner cause things are a bit "tendue avec son mere" - stressed basically. i'm like yeah, i understand, i lived with my parents this summer and blabla. well no sooner have i said this and gone upstairs to change, fabienne comes home and martin says "i'm not staying for dinner" and i swear all hell broke loose. i haven't heard her yell like that ever. it was the kind of yelling i get from my mom when i piss her off so much or upset her so much it actually makes her cry. and martin, i mean i may not be the best judge of french tone, but i think he was being sort of insolent (a.ho made fun of me for using this word but it's what came to mind). so he finally leaves and she's all upset and on the phone crying with her mother, and i'm just like ahhhhhhhhhhhh. she comes upstairs and apologizes to me, i say it's fine, then her friend jean marc shows up (my friends are on the way at this point). i go to be social with jean-marc and her, and she asks me to give her a minute to talk to him first. and i'm just like a;ldjksf;klajdf THIS IS SO AWKWARD. i swear this is the most awkward night ever. and my friends are about to show up. sigh. it should be fine right? nice dinner of all sorts of delicious cheeses and fruit and salad and crepes for dessert. i'm excited. except i don't know if i am allowed to go downstairs yet.

(a.ho says:
'mom..how long are we gonna keep doing this. i know you just wanted to scare her, but i don't know if i can keep this up any longer'
'just a few more days!')

in other news, i was worried i am actually becoming french. i did not shave my legs OR armpits (i know gross right) for too long. i mean, it wasn't THAT long, but when i noticed i was like ahhhhhhh i'm FRENCH NOW

i have a cold too. so i desperately need sudafed, i go to the pharmacy and show the lady the scientific name, and she's like oh bien sur! pulls out SIXTY mg sudafed. in the states, over the counter sudafed is 10 mg. TEN. and even when my dad gets it for me, it's only 30 mg!!!!!! now here's the best part -how much does it cost? ONE euro and 60 centimes. she said un euro and i was like huh? pardon? un euro? thinking i had misunderstood her and it was like un cent like one hundred or something. ONE EURO HAHAHAHAHAHA see america, socialized medicine could be awesome. you can also buy birth control with no prescription. i base my opinions on socialized medicine of my experience in france. and that is that it's cheap and accessible. but martin tried to tell me in the US you can buy things you cant buy here. i find that very hard to believe.

wow um yesterday and today. let's recap here. yesterday is yom kippur, so i'm fasting. i wake up and go to services, then i think i just have meeting with a family for babysitting, to meet in person and see if things will work out. i show up, meet the dad, we're chatting....then he's like ok i gotta go, so i'm thinking i'm leaving too. oh no, he continues and says - but victor should be here soon. and i'm like uhh??? you want me to stay? yeah. i end up babysitting WHILE FASTING for like 2 hours. i was so effing hungry, and fasting gives me a headache too and i get weak. it was not fun (but victor is this super cute blond-haired french boy who speaks really good english with an adorable british accent, and listens to lily allen and michael jackson hahaha).

then i have to rush back home to go with fabienne to meet these 2 women she knows that my friend celeste might stay with. i had time to eat a little something. again, i'm thinking this will take like 15 minutes. but noooo we sit down to have a glass of wine, and walk by the canal saint-ouen, and lalala. they were nice though. so i make it back home FINALLY, stuff my face, and decide against going out. good thing too - i woke up with a sore throat. fuck that.

ok today, i go to check out this painting class dina told me about. again thinking it's just a meeting ... noope, i get to stay and paint for 2 hours. sort of thrown back into it as it were, it's been a long ass time since i've oil painted. AND it was on paper, not canvas - i really, really, really didn't like it. i'm gonna finish this painting (of a still life, i prefer pictures, but the lady was like when you lose the 3rd dimension blablabla i dont care). once i finish it i am going to pay for canvas, it's worth the money. OK so THEN i have to go meet this man who wants an english conversation partner. ONCE AGAIN, i think it's just a freakin meeting to discuss the situation - no, we go out and have a café. kill me at this point, i was so sick of this happening, i just wanted to go home hahahaha. anyway it was fine, he's an orthodontist (the office was sooooo not like ours. conspicuous lack of sanitizing stuff. when ellie had to get a filling done here they didnt use novocaine ahhh). but yeah he is interested in marine stuff, goes diving, has been to the north and south pole, he's pretty cool. gave me some dvd of him "playing with a shark in tahiti". i am going to try to watch it. will let you know...what that is like. 

other things? i have now seen twice a van covered completely in astroturf, with no obvious sign saying it's like, you know, an astroturf company or something. bizarre, quoi.

one of those funny things about france - they have advertisements for chocolate or candy, and at the bottom is a warning: eating a lot of fat and sugar is bad for your health. and i saw another today that said something like, you should eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. it's like how it says "cigarettes kill". hahaha i love the french.

people are always like "ew there is dog poop all over paris" and im like what? no there isn't. they clean the streets all the time and most responsible people clean up after their dogs! when i was here 2 years ago, i didnt step in dog poop until the last week i was there!

....

tonight, in a span of maybe 2 minutes and 1 block, i stepped in dog shit twice. once for each shoe. and i think it mustve been the same damn dog's shit. GROSS.


and it's yom kippur and im starvingg

i wrote a little blurb about a couple i observed near the eiffel tower, a french guy and german girl, both speaking accented english to communicate. WELLLLLL it seems that the french boy i am living with is in the same sort of situation - long-distance!! now i dont know much, but all i do know is they talk on skype pretty much everyday at the same time. oohlalaaaa.

well now i feel awkward because he's down on the couch talking to her and i want some cereal!!! hopefully it wont bother him if i walk downstairs...blaaah.

tonight fabienne tells me she has "boudin" and i am like hm? what's that? and i look, it looks like sausage. so i'm like oh ok, i will try it. now, it may LOOK like sausage, but it sure as hell didnt TASTE like sausage! i tried it and the texture was super weird and the taste was sort of ...rusty. so i ask fabienne - what's in this? is it meat? and she's like ...do you like it? and i'm like well...i dont NOT like it....but it's very bizarre...the texture is weird. so she's still not telling me what's in it, and i'm like oh wait is it like LIVER or intestines or something terrible??? and she says no, no, i dont eat that. finally she tells me....it's BLOOD. bread, onions, and spices. blood! DU SANG! aalskdjfl;kja. she eats it to get IRON. du FER. and once i knew what it was, oh god, it just it made sense i dont know how to describe it but glabaaahhh i ate as much as i could to not be rude since it's a tradition in her family. BEWARE OF BOUDIN!!!!!! i guess it's good for you though, in a way, because iron is good for you. and fabienne told me if a woman has had a very large period and like lost lots of blood, she eats this and gets it all back. im sorry but this just grosses me out. victoria has taken to calling me a vampire now. a "twilight vampire"...since it was animal, not human, blood.

britt gave me the mission to find a bagel in paris, because i believed there were none. well, in a sense i was right, and in a sense i was wrong. i wrote about this earlier - finding bagels (beigels) in the jewish bakeries on rue des rossiers. i bought a sesame beigel and ate it this morning, toasted with butter (fresh real butter from a farm in normandy holy crap so good). anyway here are my thoughts on said-beigel:

1. it wasn't really a bagel. sure, we can call it a BEIGEL (french version), but we cannot call it a bagel.
2. it was, in fact, challah shaped like a bagel. for those of you unfamiliar with challah - jewish bread, super good. since i had previously tried challah from these jewish bakeries, i knew what it tasted like (not as good as the one we have at home). this bagel was challah. the end.

lesson learned? you cannot find true bagels in paris. unless somewhere other than the jewish boulangéries has them, which i doubt.