I Used the Phrase "Pen-Blogging" Today

I gotta get better at this thing. I spend a lot of time procrastinating on the computer, and not enough of it procrastinating through the holy portal of Blogger.

But first, breaking news from the Travel Corner: Buying train tickets on four separate computers from four separate locations at four (well three, but let's rock this parallel syntax all the way through) separate prices four days before you leave for Amsterdam is an adventure in computering worthy of a Michael Crichton (or Steve Jobs) novel.

It began simply enough- a Skype conference re: trains to Amsterdam. I'd done my research like the good little globe-trotter I am, and had two trains in mind for the high-but-that's-Europe-for-you price of E130. Unfortunately, I hadn't banked on others of my generation being less computer savvy than I (or hadn't realized the level of my savv), and we hit roadblock 1.
ROADBLOCK 1: Some people can't even get on the SNCF website.
It wasn't long before, after some computorial cajoling, we merrily rolled along to roadblock 2.
ROADBLOCK 2: Train tickets are more expensive when you buy them in groups of 4. Not wanting to pay E190 for less than 48h in the 'Dam, we decided to hit it up single-style. Which brings us to...
ROADBLOCK 3: Getting single tickets makes OtherLindsey run into trouble. While we found tickets at the same times, Lindsey's were more expensive, then nonexistent, then redirected her to another website entirely. By the time I helped her out, my tickets had then gone all sorts of awry as well. In the meantime...
ROADBLOCK 4: K & L^3 had already bought their tickets for a train that was now sold out, sans We Two Linds(e/a)ys. LindsEy now could only find extra expensive tickets that matched mine (somehow, the exact same itinerary cost her E34 more), so decided to head out an hour later than our non-similarly-named counterparts.
Amidst all the ROADBLOCKS, our frantic Skype conferencing, our wading through SNCF websites, our bemoaning the state of the economy, me calling LindsEy to walk her through the process, and wondering why the 4 wasn't running today, IT WAS BEDLAM.

Seriously. If I could capture the essence of that harried 45 minutes of hostel-searching, hostel-booking, train-searching, freak-outing, train-booking, computer-crashing in a scent, it would probably be called "IYHSNC(wt)F? eau de quoilette", because even the name is confusing.

Beyond that long histoire that was actually a rather short chunk of time, I am happy to report that Paris is really starting to feel like home, to the point where I am already not wanting to go back and wanting to go on another study abroad program. If only my school were free and I could just go there for like 6 more semesters, I would do all of the study abroad programs, graduate when I'm 24, and be the coolest person ever.

Sometimes I just get this feeling where it's like all of my internal emotions and external surrounding coalesce into this wonderful sense of well-being. Today, it was going up the Metro escalator, carrying bags from Monoprix that were blistering my hands and threatening to bust open, listening to Jeff Buckley singing Dream Brother, staring up at the dusky, starry blue sky backing L'Eglise Trinite d'Estienne d'Orves, and knowing that I was going to walk back to my apartment, throw my stuff in my room, put away my groceries, and have dinner with my famille d'acceuil that just made me feel completely content.

Even though it's easy to slip back into English here, spending the evenings with my French family really does give me a better idea of how I'm progressing French-wise. Even though my conjugation still is patchy at best, and I'm still working off those "top 20" sorts of verbs for the most part, and I still am always looking for le mot juste, we actually have conversations at dinner. The first week or so, it was mostly the Leonards talking, with me interjecting the occasional "Ben, ouais," or "Ah bon?", but tonight we actually talked about stuff. Usually the night ends up in some sort of debatery, whether it is abortion and the death penalty (yeah, that's dinner conversation here), or the Nazis and really good movies about them (tonight's topic of discussion).

I have also discovered that French people (or at least the entire Leonard clan) do not like not knowing things. At an average American dinner, if somebody forgot what Woody Allen movie they were watching last Wednesday, the forgetter and the guests would say "laisse tomber", and then the forgetter would eventually remember or find out, possibly days later. If you forgot who directed the Pianist, you would just forget about it and move on to other topics. Here? No sir. Here, if you forget, you go to your computer and look it up (Manhattan Murder Mystery), thereby sparking a debate about the Internet v. The Quark or The Quail or The Qu-something-I-Forget-The-Name-of-That-is-Essentially-a-Fancy-French-IMDB-cum-Almanac (see? If I were truly French I would look it up right now, but I'm going to finish writing). Or, in our case tonight, you go on your laptop and IMDB The Pianist while your QP calls his brother in Normandy to check and see if he knows (he did, QP was right, it was Roman Polanski). Also, I looked it up and it's the Quid (le kweed).

So there's a lot more to say, but this is already quite a long and intimidating read full of hyphenation, so I will leave you with these two Things France Has That the US Doesn't or The Joys of Monoprix: Blood Orange Diet Coke (delectable), and vaguely-marshmallowy-substance-filled sourpatchesque candies called Fili-Tubs that are totally my new Twerpz substitute.

PS- In the category of Things France Doesn't Have That the US Shouldn't is lots of irritating Valentine's Day paraphernalia. In fact, there is NOTHING here that is pink or red or hearty or flowery for any reason other than that is it's natural color, or it is a heart or flower. There are not even any bare-bottomed babies holding medieval weaponry. Frankly, it is refreshing and delightful. Kind of like Blood Orange Diet Coke.

I Have to Pretty Up This Boring Blog Template

On an entirely unrelated note to the title, I have had a simply fantastic weekend! It's a four-day-er, since the greve (strike, all the train/metro workers said "screw it" for a day) cancelled our Thursday classes and we never have Friday classes. Thursday was relaxing, I didn't do much but a little bit of homework and a movie (Love Actually, yay host-dad wanting to learn English!) with the QP and La Roule de Fortune with QM.

Friday was spectacular, and a very European backpacker sort of day. Lindsay and Liza were at a cooking class at the Fondation until around 4, so Grace, Kellie (yeah Grace Kelly, funny right?) met up in Montmartre (my neighborhood, nice bit of walk to meet them at the metro) around 1 and walked to the Sacre Coeur, as it was the most visible point in the area.

Once there, we wandered about the very hilly, very full of staircases streets until we found a delightful Indian restaurant that did 8euro "midi-express" lunch. This was such a good deal, and while not nearly as spicy as Indian Indian food, my chicken curry, basmati rice and samoussas did me just fine. SAScats, I even got some mango lassi and garlic nan- how I miss garlic nan. We promenaded about the streets for a while longer, taking in the blessed (and rare) sunshine and thinking about the coming spring, then headed back towards the Sacre Coeur.

A pleasant surprise awaited us- adorable Italian dudes playing American songs on acoustic guitars on the steps of the Sacre Coeur. With a view of all of Paris in front of us, we sat on the steps of the Sacre Coeur for hours, just listening- and singing a little- to the music with every other non-Parisian in the city- Italians, Germans, other Americans, Brits, you name it- all there listening to Youri the Italian's dulcet tones. He really did have a beautiful voice. We decided Indian food and Sacre Coeur's steps are a new weekly tradition.

We met up w/ Lindsey (yup, there's another one) and Liza and decided randomly to try and see Le Roi Lion (French Lion King, oh yeah!) at the Mogador, the big theater in my quartier. The tickets for a Friday night show were too expensive, but we found out Tue-Wed-Thu nights are only 10euro for the cheap seats! We made plans to go this Thursday, and then walked around until we found a tasty Thai place to eat. Then we walked around some more, bu un verre and told high school stories at the bar right next to the metro, and then I sent my friends home on the train and walked back. It was a really wonderful and relaxed Friday.

Today I did some work and then we all headed over to Kellie's for a movie night. Kellie's family lives on the floor below her, but own the floor above and rents it out to study-abroad kids, so Kellie has her own little mini-appartement in the 12th. Yet again, another great, relaxing night that we are keen to repeat- we managed to eat two baguettes tradition covered in Nutella and more cookies than I would care to tell you about.

Tomorrow is work day- it was going to be Louvre day, but I have to prepare for an art history expose on Wassily Kandinsky's Impression V, and the Louvre will still be there after my expose's over. I'm half excited about the project because I love Kandinsky and half not because I don't particularly like Impression V, but whatever.

This weekend was just the kind of weekend I enjoy- low-key but not boring, spending lots of time walking, exploring and hanging out talking and getting closer with new friends. Go Paris!

The One With the Stuff I Did

I live in Paris. It's amazing how quickly you can get a routine going once you realize you're an easygoing person who is at ease with being mildly lost and trusts the public transportation implicitly. Wake up, eat some breakfast, me promener to Trinite D'Estienne-D'Orves, the dearest-but-not-nearest Metro stop, change lines at Madeleine, get off at LaMotte-Picquet-Grenelle, take another little stroll and arrive at class. Go to class, get out of class. Do one of a few options- grab a chicken curry panini or nutella crepe from my favorite corner crepe-panini man, boire un verre at the nearby cafe, idle in the Salle de Zen (also known as the Salle d'Ikea) until someone decides to do something, or/then grab the Metro back to Trinite and head chez moi for whatever poorly-crafted (if it's me) or magically-cuisined (if it's Mme. Andree Leonard, the QM) dinner I end up with.

It's a schedule I enjoy. I am always ready for dinner out or a little exploring, but I am also happy to head "home" and relax. I am really looking forward to the weekend trips that are going to start happening very shortly, now that I've got an intrepid band to agree with my grand plans.

Parisian things I'm into:
1. "plats du jour", the cheap(er) combo-style menu items in which you get to choose an entree, plat, et dessert for the comparatively low price of 10 or 15 euro.
2. Cheeses- Comte and Chevre are winning the Fromascars (Fromage+Oscar, stay with me people) as of yet, but I had something yummy and Brie-esque in its spreadability but with a less inside-of-a-sneaker-after-a-light-jog taste.
3. Incroyables Experiences, an incredibly nerdy game show wherein two panels of 3 vaguely famous people compete for no prize to guess what the answers to questions like "How can wind and a large umbrella lift a man off the ground? a) Pressure from underneath the umbrella b) air pushing up and around the umbrella c) both", only to have their answers validated not by a blinking light and intense music, but the host actually DOING the experiments.
It's like if Mythbusters had a baby with Bill Nye, but then they broke up and Mythbusters started dating Dancing With the Stars and THEY had babies, and then everybody lived in an amicable, dorky, Brady-Bunch world where everybody gathers round the lab bench to watch dear old Dad construct robots and pour liquids into other liquids and crunch numbers while they guess what's going to happen.
My guy friends would love it, both for its kitsch and its educational value.

Okay, here it is: STUFF I HAVE DONE THUSFAR
Taken a nice little walk with Lindsey (yeah that's right, the one I get along with best has my name) past the Eiffel Tower and the Champ de Mars in an adventure wherein we parted ways for the night and both got lost.
Gone to Versailles- it is absolutely beautiful and there are pictures forthcoming.
Musee D'Orsay- it's in an awesome area, hosts beautiful works of art, and is free (for me, the "art history" student). Definitely returning for many viewings.
Movie in the Latin Quarter- "Agathe Clery" is a so-bad-I-kind-of-liked-it, semi-musical movie about a white racist who gets a skin condition that messes with her pigmentation, turning her black. Once black, she stops being racist, buys a new wardrobe, dances like Michael Jackson and Beyonce, gets a black boyfriend, and starts working at a company that won't hire white people. Then, her skin decides "JK" and she turns back to white. Keeps the boyfriend, the job and the sick dance moves though, because this is a happymoral film. Would never fly in the US because it is too un-PC to NOT come off as racist and too moral and precious to be so-obscene-you-have-to-see-it a la Borat.

Other than that, it's been nice small family dinners with the Leonards and various members of their clan, doing homework (read: planning trips to Eurofabulous destinations and Skyping friends & family), and settling in. I anticipate wonderful things ahead.

Comment if there's stuff I didn't cover you'd like to hear about!

Now: Whining and Cleaning; Next: What I've Actually Been Doing

Alright, here's the deal. Sometimes, late at night, I get cravings. This uncontrollable, undeniable desire...to organize. That's right, the moment is never opportune and is never during a normal person's waking hours, but when it seizes me I let it. I did a FANTASTIC organizing job tonight. My entire room has a system, all my clothes are finally hung up/folded in lovely order, my scrapbook stuff is no longer haphazardly stuffed in every available pocket, and even my to-do list has been cleaned up. Dearest mother, I'm sure you'd still walk in here and complain about the electronic wires plopped on the floor, and the way my knitting is next to my clementines, but I'm putting this one in the Win Column.

That said, let's talk about the part that you, dear readers (aka family members, but I like to pretend I have a fan base), care about: Paris.

Paris is beautiful, despite its clingy film of gray and perpetual precipitation. According to my hostman, hereby called QP (for quasi-pere, because M. Leonard is too long to type and initials are fun!), a cold winter means a beautiful spring, so here's hoping in a month or two I am toujours bathed in sunshine.

Everything here is old and beautifully designed, and even things that would look a little shabby in the US look shabby-CHIC in Paris. I am still hiding in my room a little while I fully adjust (and wait for my monthly Metro pass to kick in), but I think after such a life-altering last semester and whirlwind, high-stress end to the winter break that I can take a pass on rushing around, at least for a few weeks. Semester at Sea is still very much in my mind, and I see things I know my SAScats would understand (but others would not) every day. No one else gets that the Vietnamese restaurant in the Latin Quarter is really exciting for me because I've eaten a frog I hand-picked out of a tank in Saigon. No one else gets that I love sushi so much because I've eaten it at a hole in the wall in the middle of the pitch-black closed-down Tsukiji fish market. I can't expect them to, but being away from home again just makes me want to hop down the hall and knock on Carrie or Katey's door, knowing that even if we're just watching old TV on DVD, our shared experience means that things are "same same, but different."

So as much as I hate to admit to my fellow intrepid and vicarious travellers, I have been a touch reclusive for this first bit of the semester. But now I have a nice little group of amies, plans to visit BU-ers and SAS-ers alike in the next few months, and a whole lot of city to discover dehors.

Expect much less whiny and much more jealousy-inducing posts in the near future.

Bienvenue a Paris!

So, I am here. My flight went just fine, thank you, and my appartement is just lovely. It is full of old colors like mustard carpets and baby blue faux-finished walls, but that just adds to its charm. My bed is quite cozy and I have lots of space, plus a private shower.

Mes hôtes (hosts) are M. Daniel et Mme. Andree Leonard, and they are super nice. M. Leonard picked me up at the airport, which was even more nice considering he had to wait for me as our flight was delayed a bit, and barely said anything about it other than that he was glad he found me.

We drove back and talked (and by talked I mean M. Leonard talked and I mostly said things like "Ah bon?" and "Oui") about his family, how Franco-American relations have improved since Sarko & (in three days!!!) Obama, my croisière (SAS), and the stuff we passed by, like the Arab market and the Moulin Rouge. Their apartment is in the 9th arrondissement, in the Pigalle-Montmartre area. There is a whole host of sex shops and porn palaces right down the street, but our little corner is très précieux.

Every Saturday, their 14-year-old granddaughter comes to stay with them, which is really sweet. We all had a nice lunch of fresh baguette, paté (which is an acquired taste I have yet to acquire, unfortunately), pasta, and chicken...I was so nervous that I didn't really eat much.

On that topic, everything here is great, but I really miss home. I know it's just the whole getting used to being in a new place that doesn't speak your language thing, but being away with SAS made me realize how close I am to my family and my home, and it was hard to leave. I think once classes get started and I get settled into ma vie quotidienne, I will feel better. Right now I feel sort of lost in the abyss, especially having missed my orientation and having a wide open day tomorrow to do with as I please.

And that's that. I'm here, I am doing my damndest to bring back all that high school French learnins, and I will keep you updated as my life progresses.