Tomorrow morning I leave for Nice until Sunday :) I'm really glad that I bought the ticket even though it was pretty expensive. I'm just happy to be getting out of town for a bit, even if it is just to the south.
Yesterday I met Maya and we went to the Pavillon de l'Arsenal for Costello's next writing assigment that's due next week. It's a museum about architecture starting from the 18th century, I think, until today. We were supposed to start with the 20th century but we started a little bit before that so we could go over what we already learned in Costello's class. It was a cool place if you're really into architecture and planning of a city and stuff. There was a lot to read and it was all under construction so there was a lot of annoying background noise. There were these huge models of the city on the floor that were really interesting. There had all of the monuments on them and everything. The model was in different colors so you could tell what was built when and stuff like that. It was pretty sweet. The part I liked the most was the models of future projects for the city. They are all so modern looking. I couldn't figure out where they were going to put them because I really didn't read the sign carefully. We weren't at the Pavillon for very long. They didn't hand out tickets to us and Costello requires that we turn in our ticket with the paper to prove that we were there. So we grabbed a phamplet and then took a picture in front of the building to prove that we actually went and didn't get all the info off of the internet. I don't know if he's going to accept that but they seriously had no ticket person or even a machine that printed out tickets.
We got back on the metro and headed to Montparnasse because Maya wanted to buy pants. She got some that look a lot like the ones I bought but it's cool. After that we got a bagel at this bagel place. I wasn't expecting much but it was pretty good. I don't think I'd go back though because it was pretty expensive for a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. We ate and then left to get some ice cream outside the mall. Then we walked to this circle fountain that's near the apartment and we sat on this bench talking for like an hour and ate our ice cream.
Renee and I had galettes for dinner last night. I forgot to mention this, but on Monday we were talking about how much stuff I have and how I don't think there will be enough room in my suitcases and how I might have to send a box home and all that jazz. Anyways, she was like well you can use my big suitcase that I brought with me when I went to Africa. I was like ummm, how am I going to get it back to you? And she's like oh you can just keep it. I was like seriously?!?!?! Are you crazy? I guess it's some giant suitcase or something. She said it's a lot bigger than the pink one that I brought with me and I thought that one was really big. So we'll see what happens. She also said that her friend Marie-Jo's son goes to America all the time for work and she said that if I wanted to I could get a box and put my books in it and she would give it to him to send to me when he goes back to America. So that's another option. It would also save me a ton of money too.
I have to try to go to bed early tonight so I'm not incredibly crabby tomorrow when I meet up with everyone in Nice. I get there a few hours before they do so I think I just might walk to the hostel because it's only a 40 min walk and then I'll just hang out on the beach until they get there or something. I'm really not sure yet. My train leaves at 7:46 it doesn't start loading until 7:21 but I have to be there early because I'm not sure how the whole thing works. I printed my tickets so that's good. I just figured it'll be better to get there early especially if I really don't know what I'm doing. My train leaves Nice Sunday at like 6:35 am (YUCK!!) and I get back to Paris around 12:30. It's a really long ride. I plan on sleeping on that trip. I say that now but I probably won't. There will be tons of cool stuff to see outside I'm sure.
I'll try to update about my trip on Sunday when I get back but who knows if I'll actually get around to that. So until next time,
Bisous!!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
We gotta get out while we're still young...
...cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run. I've had a little bit of a Springsteen obsession lately. I think I've watched like a million videos on YouTube today....anyways, I'm still in Paris, incase you were wondering. Nothing really exciting has happened. I'm going to Nice on Thursday, but I've already mentioned that. Let's see, on Friday I got no homework done, but what else is new? I hung out with with Chaniece at the Starbucks at Montparnasse and attempted to do homework. I read like 3 pages of this play, so yeah, not much got accomplished. I did have a piece of cheesecake. It was delish! Krista and Jacqueline met up with us and we went to the mall because what else would we do? We went into a few stores but no one bought anything. Me and Chaniece left, got ice cream and then went home. Renee went out with her friends that night so I ate dinner alone. I don't even remember what I ate. When Renee came home I was watching Just Friends and eating some popcorn in my room. She told me that she was working tomorrow, she never works on Saturday, but I guess someone needed off so she took on an extra shift for the week....she only works 6 days a week, why not add on one more? I told her my plans for tomorrow and she said that when she got home from work we would eat pizza dehors, which I intrepreted to mean outside on the balcony. More on that later...
Saturday, Chaniece, Jacqueline and I went to see this fountain that's by the Pompidou. Chaniece saw a picture of it in her guide book but she wasn't sure where it was. I knew, so I took them there. We got lunch at this crepe place. I got a mango smoothie and a smoked salmon galette. It was so good. We sat outside and were there for like 2 hours. In France you pretty much have to ask for your check and I feel awkward doing that so we just sat there until the waitress asked us if we wanted it. We payed and then walked around the 4th and made our way to this crepe stand where we got some nutella and banana crepes. There was too much nutella in mine so I couldn't finish it because I knew if I did, I would've gotten sick. We walked into Shakespeare and Company and I didn't buy anything, surprise! We then walked down these little roads I like to call Diagon Alley because they are super small and have all these shops and stuff. We then got on the metro and took it to the end of the line to Bologne (the suburbs) to meet Krista who lives out there. We stopped at the Macdo (McDonalds) to pee and then walked around town. I left because I had to be back for dinner and I think they all had dinner in Bologne. Renee didn't get back until 8:45 and I was STARVING!!!! She came in, walked Norton when she came back she was like, are you ready to go? and I was like ummmmm where are we going? and she's like we're going out to dinner silly! I was like ohhhhh, I thought you meant we were eating outdoors, like on the balcony, not out out. I felt like an idiot. Renee was like no, dehors means outside but also out as in out to eat. We went to the pizza restaurant we went when I moved in. I got pasta. It was alright. The portion could've been bigger and I've had better pasta. We talked a lot about random stuff. I asked her if she was still mad at Mathilde (I don't think I mentioned this last time....her and Mathilde got into this big fight during the week. It was bad) she said that she wasn't mad at her anymore but said that when she comes to Paris in the summer she won't be staying at her house. Ouch! She said that she doesn't approve of her life choices or the activities she partakes in with her friends. We left shortly after that and Renee went to bed because she had to work in the morning. I stayed up to listen to the Hawks game and it was AWESOME!
Sunday Chaniece, Jacqueline and I were supposed to go to Luxembourg gardens to do homework but our plans fell through so I just went back to the apartment, read the rest of the play I started on Friday, started another book, and attempted to start my theatre paper.
Today I met up with Chaniece, Jacqueline and Colie, all of whom I'm meeting up with in Nice, and we went to Macdo. I bought some nice sandals from H&M. After looking around Etam forever I left and worked some more on my theatre paper. Renee and I ate dinner together. She made pork chops with mushrooms and some weird cream sauce that would've been really good if there wasn't cheese in it. It was a little odd. Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to the next place on the list for Costello's class but I really don't know what time or what else I'll be doing.
I REALLY want to listen to the Hawks game tonight but it doesn't start until 8pm at home and that's 3 am here...so yea, that's not gonna happen. Hopefully they win and we'll move onto the next round.
Bisous mes amis!
Saturday, Chaniece, Jacqueline and I went to see this fountain that's by the Pompidou. Chaniece saw a picture of it in her guide book but she wasn't sure where it was. I knew, so I took them there. We got lunch at this crepe place. I got a mango smoothie and a smoked salmon galette. It was so good. We sat outside and were there for like 2 hours. In France you pretty much have to ask for your check and I feel awkward doing that so we just sat there until the waitress asked us if we wanted it. We payed and then walked around the 4th and made our way to this crepe stand where we got some nutella and banana crepes. There was too much nutella in mine so I couldn't finish it because I knew if I did, I would've gotten sick. We walked into Shakespeare and Company and I didn't buy anything, surprise! We then walked down these little roads I like to call Diagon Alley because they are super small and have all these shops and stuff. We then got on the metro and took it to the end of the line to Bologne (the suburbs) to meet Krista who lives out there. We stopped at the Macdo (McDonalds) to pee and then walked around town. I left because I had to be back for dinner and I think they all had dinner in Bologne. Renee didn't get back until 8:45 and I was STARVING!!!! She came in, walked Norton when she came back she was like, are you ready to go? and I was like ummmmm where are we going? and she's like we're going out to dinner silly! I was like ohhhhh, I thought you meant we were eating outdoors, like on the balcony, not out out. I felt like an idiot. Renee was like no, dehors means outside but also out as in out to eat. We went to the pizza restaurant we went when I moved in. I got pasta. It was alright. The portion could've been bigger and I've had better pasta. We talked a lot about random stuff. I asked her if she was still mad at Mathilde (I don't think I mentioned this last time....her and Mathilde got into this big fight during the week. It was bad) she said that she wasn't mad at her anymore but said that when she comes to Paris in the summer she won't be staying at her house. Ouch! She said that she doesn't approve of her life choices or the activities she partakes in with her friends. We left shortly after that and Renee went to bed because she had to work in the morning. I stayed up to listen to the Hawks game and it was AWESOME!
Sunday Chaniece, Jacqueline and I were supposed to go to Luxembourg gardens to do homework but our plans fell through so I just went back to the apartment, read the rest of the play I started on Friday, started another book, and attempted to start my theatre paper.
Today I met up with Chaniece, Jacqueline and Colie, all of whom I'm meeting up with in Nice, and we went to Macdo. I bought some nice sandals from H&M. After looking around Etam forever I left and worked some more on my theatre paper. Renee and I ate dinner together. She made pork chops with mushrooms and some weird cream sauce that would've been really good if there wasn't cheese in it. It was a little odd. Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to the next place on the list for Costello's class but I really don't know what time or what else I'll be doing.
I REALLY want to listen to the Hawks game tonight but it doesn't start until 8pm at home and that's 3 am here...so yea, that's not gonna happen. Hopefully they win and we'll move onto the next round.
Bisous mes amis!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Greece is a no-go :(
Well if you were wondering I am not in Greece right now. I'm pretty bummed, not gonna lie. This will be just a short post because I really don't have much to say. Monday I did all my laundry and went shopping with Chaniece and Jacqueline. I bought this really cute dress for Greece because at that time I thought I was still going. I would constantly check the EasyJet website and it still said that the flight was operating. Jean-Francois left, Renee is back from vacation and now Mathilde is back too. I thought she was going but she's not. I spent the majority of the day Tuesday packing and checking out info on Greece and Santorini. I also kept checking the website to look at my flight. I ate dinner with Renee and Mathilde that night. When I got done with dinner I came back into my room and looked at my Skype and I had a message from Maya saying that our flight was cancelled. I quickly called her and asked her what was going on. She said that she kept refreshing the website and after 2 times it said that the flight was cancelled.
Throughout the day they kept pushing the time back as to when they would let the planes fly. I checked the website and sure enough, our flight was cancelled. Everything up until 1pm was cancelled for Wednesday and our flight was at 10:30am. Katie told me that on the Orly website it still said that our flight was still scheduled, which I thought was really weird. I called home, pretty close to tears because my entire break has been ruined by this volcano. I decided that I would still wake up around 5:30am as planned and just double check to make sure the flight was cancelled because maybe they would've changed it over night or something. Maya texted me around 5 and said that it was still cancelled. I got up, check and sure enough it was. I tried going back to sleep but I just tossed and turned. Good thing my bag was packed and ready to go to Greece! That day I was pretty sad so a bunch of us and our resident advisor Sean went to this amazing park and we had a picnic. I'd rather be in Greece, but it was better than sitting inside wallowing. The park was called Parc des buttes Chaumont google it, it's cool. So we ate, met this Canadian and hung out there for a long time.
Renee came home for a bit and said she was sorry I couldn't go to Greece, then she left to go meet her friends or something. I made dinner and Mathilde got back and she was like, Oh, you're already eating? and I wanted to be like well yea, it's 8:45 and I'm starving. Renee told me Mathilde was going to make a salad for the 2 of us but I was really hungry and couldn't wait any longer. Oh well, I really don't care. Oh, that morning I cancelled the hostel and lost my deposit of like 12 euro so that wasn't too bad. I also lost half of my money for the ferry. I tried getting ahold of Aegean for our flight home but couldn't get anyone there to pick up their phone. I made an online request for a refund from EasyJet but who knows how long that will take to show up. They sent me a response email saying that due to the high amount of emails it could be a while before they get back to me. Awesome.
So this morning I called Aegean and they told me they were only going to give me the taxes back for my ticket, minus 20 euro for cancelling the ticket. I told the woman that I didn't think this was fair. She was like well there's nothing more I can do about it blah blah blah so I just told her fine, and basically hung up. So I would only be getting back 8euro. Then I talked to Katie this afternoon after hanging out with Jacqueline and Chaniece and wathcing movies. and Katie said that she might be getting a full refund. So, I called them back and got hung up on 3 times. I called again and finally got a hold of someone. I told the woman that due to the volcano in Iceland I wasn't able to make my flight to Athens and therefore couldn't make it to Santorini. She told me the same thing about only getting 8 euro back. I told her that I didn't think it was fair and she told me to email this person and ask them if there was any way I can get a full refund. So I did that and put all my information down from my flight with EasyJet and all the other stuff she asked for so hopefully I'll be getting more than 8 euro back. That's just unacceptable. The ticket was 147 euro!!!! and I'm only getting 8 back? No way.
Last night I bought an uber expensive train ticket to Nice for next Thrusday-Sunday so I can go somewhere for break. A few girls I know are also going there so I'll meet them there and just crash with them. It was a lot more than I wanted to spend considering I haven't seen any refunds yet in my accounts but it's better than being stuck in Paris for the rest of the break. I think its kind of funny how everyone is complaining about being stuck in Paris but put yourself in my shoes. I've had Greece planned since the beginning of Feb., London was planned in March so I think I have a right to be annoyed that I'm stuck here.
Anyways, that's all for now I guess. I think tomorrow is a homework day. I have tons to do and since I'll be in Nice next weekend I can't wait to the last minute to do it all like I was planning on doing.
Bisous!
Throughout the day they kept pushing the time back as to when they would let the planes fly. I checked the website and sure enough, our flight was cancelled. Everything up until 1pm was cancelled for Wednesday and our flight was at 10:30am. Katie told me that on the Orly website it still said that our flight was still scheduled, which I thought was really weird. I called home, pretty close to tears because my entire break has been ruined by this volcano. I decided that I would still wake up around 5:30am as planned and just double check to make sure the flight was cancelled because maybe they would've changed it over night or something. Maya texted me around 5 and said that it was still cancelled. I got up, check and sure enough it was. I tried going back to sleep but I just tossed and turned. Good thing my bag was packed and ready to go to Greece! That day I was pretty sad so a bunch of us and our resident advisor Sean went to this amazing park and we had a picnic. I'd rather be in Greece, but it was better than sitting inside wallowing. The park was called Parc des buttes Chaumont google it, it's cool. So we ate, met this Canadian and hung out there for a long time.
Renee came home for a bit and said she was sorry I couldn't go to Greece, then she left to go meet her friends or something. I made dinner and Mathilde got back and she was like, Oh, you're already eating? and I wanted to be like well yea, it's 8:45 and I'm starving. Renee told me Mathilde was going to make a salad for the 2 of us but I was really hungry and couldn't wait any longer. Oh well, I really don't care. Oh, that morning I cancelled the hostel and lost my deposit of like 12 euro so that wasn't too bad. I also lost half of my money for the ferry. I tried getting ahold of Aegean for our flight home but couldn't get anyone there to pick up their phone. I made an online request for a refund from EasyJet but who knows how long that will take to show up. They sent me a response email saying that due to the high amount of emails it could be a while before they get back to me. Awesome.
So this morning I called Aegean and they told me they were only going to give me the taxes back for my ticket, minus 20 euro for cancelling the ticket. I told the woman that I didn't think this was fair. She was like well there's nothing more I can do about it blah blah blah so I just told her fine, and basically hung up. So I would only be getting back 8euro. Then I talked to Katie this afternoon after hanging out with Jacqueline and Chaniece and wathcing movies. and Katie said that she might be getting a full refund. So, I called them back and got hung up on 3 times. I called again and finally got a hold of someone. I told the woman that due to the volcano in Iceland I wasn't able to make my flight to Athens and therefore couldn't make it to Santorini. She told me the same thing about only getting 8 euro back. I told her that I didn't think it was fair and she told me to email this person and ask them if there was any way I can get a full refund. So I did that and put all my information down from my flight with EasyJet and all the other stuff she asked for so hopefully I'll be getting more than 8 euro back. That's just unacceptable. The ticket was 147 euro!!!! and I'm only getting 8 back? No way.
Last night I bought an uber expensive train ticket to Nice for next Thrusday-Sunday so I can go somewhere for break. A few girls I know are also going there so I'll meet them there and just crash with them. It was a lot more than I wanted to spend considering I haven't seen any refunds yet in my accounts but it's better than being stuck in Paris for the rest of the break. I think its kind of funny how everyone is complaining about being stuck in Paris but put yourself in my shoes. I've had Greece planned since the beginning of Feb., London was planned in March so I think I have a right to be annoyed that I'm stuck here.
Anyways, that's all for now I guess. I think tomorrow is a homework day. I have tons to do and since I'll be in Nice next weekend I can't wait to the last minute to do it all like I was planning on doing.
Bisous!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Still no news :(
I keep getting mixed news reports from both US and European channels about when the airports in France are going to open back up. The AirFrance website says that the airports will open up tomorrow at the earliest at 3pm Paris time. I read this morning that they were going to be open tomorrow morning. I guess the volcano hasn't stopped so things just seem to be getting worse and everything keeps getting pushed back. I was watching the news tonight and the French journalist said that there's a possibility that they could stay closed until Wednesday. That's pretty much the worst case senario for me. I'm supposed to leave Wednesday morning for Athens....I checked the Orly website (which is the airport we are flying out of) just to see what it said about out flight. It said that it was still scheduled to take off on time but who knows what's going to happen because they have all these people to deal with who have been stranded in Europe basically since late Thursday. I'm trying to stay positive about it all but it's just not looking good. So please keep your fingers crossed because I really, really want to go to Greece.
Aside from the volcano drama, this weekend has been quite enjoyable. The weather has been amazing; in the 70's and sunny. Friday night I met up with Jacqueline, Chaniece, John, Alla, Krista and Colie at this pizza place that is right around the corner from my apartment. We all had a good dinner and there was a lot of complaining about the volcano. It was a lot of fun. Everyone is so nice. After dinner I wanted to go to the bar next door and get a beer but John had this bottle of mead he bought earlier during the day and started opening it. I thought he was going to share because I said I'd have some and Colie said she would too but then he left with Alla and Krista...it was really weird. So Chaniece, Jacqueline, Colie and I go to the bar. Chaniece and Jacqueline didn't order anything while Colie and I ordered a beer. It was horrible. Thank god it wasn't a pint because I don't think I would've been able to drink it all. I don't remember what it was called....it started with a C. Sometime while I was gone, Mathilde left so now it's just me and Jean-Francois.
Saturday I really didn't know what to do. I wanted to go to this park called Montsouris in the 14th (which is where I live) but everyone else wanted to go to Pere Lachaise cemetery. I really didn't want to go back there because I've been there before and I knew there were going to be a million people there. I ended up going with to the cemetery because I figured that way I'd have someone to talk to. Before the cemetery, I went with Chaniece to the mall at Montparnasse to find her some new jeans because apparently she can never find any when she goes. She ended up getting the same ones I have but the pattern on the pocket is different. Jacqueline met up with us and we got some crepes for lunch and then walked back to Chaniece's apartment so she could drop her stuff off. Then we walked all the way back to Montparnasse to meet up with Alla at the metro. We all jumped on the metro and met Colie at Pere Lachaise. She lives really close to it. They were all really excited. As I predicted, there were a ton of people there. It was cool to see how different the cemetery looked in the spring. The last time I went it was fall so it was nice to see all the flowers and green trees. They really only wanted to see a few people so I tried to remember where the graves were. I saw this giant group of people crowded around one grave and it happened to be Edith Piaf's. Seriously if you want to find someone famous in the cemetery, just looked for a giant group of people. We walked passed the WWII memorials next and then headed to Oscar Wilde's grave. We made our way to the exit afterwards and then I spotted Balzac's grave. That was pretty cool.
After the cemetery, Jacqueline, Colie, Chaniece and I headed to this grocery store to buy some food for dinner. We were all going to eat at Colie's host family's house because they are super cool and let her have friends over, unlike some host families......We made quesadillas and guacamole. They were pretty good. They bought this weird wine that was a sparkling wine that tasted a lot like Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice. It was pretty good. We also bought some Orangina because you can never go wrong with Orangina. After dinner we hung out in Colie's room talking. We were going to go bowling but that never happened. Jacqueline left and me and Chaniece stayed for a while longer. We ended up leaving at like 10:15 and I made it back to the apartment around 11.
I got on skype and my dad was on and for some reason the video chat actually worked...it usually doesn't whenever I call home. It justed so happened that my aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandparents were all at my house so I got to talk to all of them...except my uncle. My nana told me I looked drunk. So kind of her. I wasn't btws. I also talked to Tracey for a while which was good. I also talked to Casey (who wasn't at my house) but on skype, a little while later.
Today was really fun. I met up with Jacqueline and Chaniece and we went to the monoprix by Chaniece's apartment that just so happened to be open on Sunday and grabbed some things to eat for lunch so we could have a picnic at the park. We went to Parc Montsouris in the 14th, the one I wanted to go to the day before. It was so awesome. I loved it. We found this nice little spot in the shade and ate our lunch and talked. We should've brought a blanket to sit on...next time. There were so many families there it was adorable. French babies are so cute! After lunch we walked around the park and found the spot that was in this movie I saw in cinema class. Jacqueline and Chaniece left to find a bathroom because the line for the public one in the park was really long. I sat on a bench and read while they were gone. There was this guy playing the guitar with another guy and he was singing. He was actually pretty good. They came back and we just sat on the bench for an hour or so. After we were all toasty from the sun we decided to leave because we were all pretty tired.
Tonight I'm going to watch a movie and figure out what I'm going to do tomorrow and hopefully find some more news about this volcano.
Bisous!
ps. I tried posting a few pics from the park but the internet is being super annoying right now and won't load them. Sorry :( they're on Facebook
Aside from the volcano drama, this weekend has been quite enjoyable. The weather has been amazing; in the 70's and sunny. Friday night I met up with Jacqueline, Chaniece, John, Alla, Krista and Colie at this pizza place that is right around the corner from my apartment. We all had a good dinner and there was a lot of complaining about the volcano. It was a lot of fun. Everyone is so nice. After dinner I wanted to go to the bar next door and get a beer but John had this bottle of mead he bought earlier during the day and started opening it. I thought he was going to share because I said I'd have some and Colie said she would too but then he left with Alla and Krista...it was really weird. So Chaniece, Jacqueline, Colie and I go to the bar. Chaniece and Jacqueline didn't order anything while Colie and I ordered a beer. It was horrible. Thank god it wasn't a pint because I don't think I would've been able to drink it all. I don't remember what it was called....it started with a C. Sometime while I was gone, Mathilde left so now it's just me and Jean-Francois.
Saturday I really didn't know what to do. I wanted to go to this park called Montsouris in the 14th (which is where I live) but everyone else wanted to go to Pere Lachaise cemetery. I really didn't want to go back there because I've been there before and I knew there were going to be a million people there. I ended up going with to the cemetery because I figured that way I'd have someone to talk to. Before the cemetery, I went with Chaniece to the mall at Montparnasse to find her some new jeans because apparently she can never find any when she goes. She ended up getting the same ones I have but the pattern on the pocket is different. Jacqueline met up with us and we got some crepes for lunch and then walked back to Chaniece's apartment so she could drop her stuff off. Then we walked all the way back to Montparnasse to meet up with Alla at the metro. We all jumped on the metro and met Colie at Pere Lachaise. She lives really close to it. They were all really excited. As I predicted, there were a ton of people there. It was cool to see how different the cemetery looked in the spring. The last time I went it was fall so it was nice to see all the flowers and green trees. They really only wanted to see a few people so I tried to remember where the graves were. I saw this giant group of people crowded around one grave and it happened to be Edith Piaf's. Seriously if you want to find someone famous in the cemetery, just looked for a giant group of people. We walked passed the WWII memorials next and then headed to Oscar Wilde's grave. We made our way to the exit afterwards and then I spotted Balzac's grave. That was pretty cool.
After the cemetery, Jacqueline, Colie, Chaniece and I headed to this grocery store to buy some food for dinner. We were all going to eat at Colie's host family's house because they are super cool and let her have friends over, unlike some host families......We made quesadillas and guacamole. They were pretty good. They bought this weird wine that was a sparkling wine that tasted a lot like Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice. It was pretty good. We also bought some Orangina because you can never go wrong with Orangina. After dinner we hung out in Colie's room talking. We were going to go bowling but that never happened. Jacqueline left and me and Chaniece stayed for a while longer. We ended up leaving at like 10:15 and I made it back to the apartment around 11.
I got on skype and my dad was on and for some reason the video chat actually worked...it usually doesn't whenever I call home. It justed so happened that my aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandparents were all at my house so I got to talk to all of them...except my uncle. My nana told me I looked drunk. So kind of her. I wasn't btws. I also talked to Tracey for a while which was good. I also talked to Casey (who wasn't at my house) but on skype, a little while later.
Today was really fun. I met up with Jacqueline and Chaniece and we went to the monoprix by Chaniece's apartment that just so happened to be open on Sunday and grabbed some things to eat for lunch so we could have a picnic at the park. We went to Parc Montsouris in the 14th, the one I wanted to go to the day before. It was so awesome. I loved it. We found this nice little spot in the shade and ate our lunch and talked. We should've brought a blanket to sit on...next time. There were so many families there it was adorable. French babies are so cute! After lunch we walked around the park and found the spot that was in this movie I saw in cinema class. Jacqueline and Chaniece left to find a bathroom because the line for the public one in the park was really long. I sat on a bench and read while they were gone. There was this guy playing the guitar with another guy and he was singing. He was actually pretty good. They came back and we just sat on the bench for an hour or so. After we were all toasty from the sun we decided to leave because we were all pretty tired.
Tonight I'm going to watch a movie and figure out what I'm going to do tomorrow and hopefully find some more news about this volcano.
Bisous!
ps. I tried posting a few pics from the park but the internet is being super annoying right now and won't load them. Sorry :( they're on Facebook
Friday, April 16, 2010
THANKS ICELAND!!!!!!!
Well it's been a very long, stressful week so get ready for a lot of ranting. Just warning you now, I'm not in a very good mood.
On Sunday Renee left for vacation. Around 1:15am the buzzer rings in the apartment. I told you all how Renee left the door open so Mathilde could get in. I don't think she thought about the fact that she doesn't have the little key thing you need to get in downstairs. So Mathilde rings the apartment. I answered and told her the door to the apartment was open and then went back to bed. When I woke up Monday morning, Mathilde had already left for work and Jean-Francois was sleeping in the living room. I have no idea what time he got there. Class was boring so I won't talk about it. Me, Mathilde and Jean-Francois had dinner together that night. I was worried it was going to be super awkward but it wasn't too bad. A commercial for Nurse Jackie came on and Jean-Francois asked if I watched it and I said no, but I watch Dexter, which is on the same channel. Turns out he really likes Dexter too.
Tuesday I didn't have class so I went to H&M and bought a new jacket. It's too hot for my NorthFace and I've had my eye on this jacket for weeks so I finally caved and bought it. It's super cute. The rest of the day I worked on my 2 papers for Costello's class and studied for my theatre test which was on Wednesday. We all had dinner again Tuesday. I didn't talk much. Jean-Francois and Mathilde went on about something but I couldn't follow along.
Wednesday the test in theatre was really easy. There were a few questions that asked for specific dates and I had no idea what the answer was so I just guessed. In translation class I did horrible on the packet we were supposed to do. It was really hard and all about pronouns. I'm not even good with pronouns in English, let alone French. I volunteered to give my translation of parts of this text we had to do and the professor pretty much ripped apart what I said. It was kind of depressing. That night we had a huge group study session on Skype for our lit test Thursday. There were seriously like 10 of us it was nuts. But it went pretty well. I didn't go to bed Thursday until super late because obvs I had to watch GLEE!!!! And I loved it.
Costello's class wasn't that bad on Thursday. I got a check plus (whatever that means) on my extra credit paper, and a 5/6 on the quiz on L'Assommoir which is pretty good considering I didn't read the end of the book until a few days ago. Only me and 1 other girl did this one topic (there were 2 options) for the paper. It kind of makes me nervous because we pretty much talked about the same stuff. So I don't know how that is going to go. Costello let us out late because someone started packing up before class was over so we had to rush over to lit.
Every thing started going downhill in lit. I got into the class and left right away to go to the bathroom. When I got back in someone asked me if I was going to London and I said yeah and they were like oh well there was this volcano that erupted in Iceland and a lot of flights have been cancelled. I just looked at them like they were crazy. I really thought they were joking with me. Like maybe they found out I'll pretty much believe anything you tell me...but it turns out they weren't joking. Lex texted me and told me she was looking into it at work because I was in class. My mood pretty much sunk lower and lower as class went on. The test, which wasn't that hard, took me forever to finish. I asked the professor if it was alright if I left when I turned it in because I needed to find out what was going on with my flight and she said it was fine. When I got back to the apartment I asked Jean-Francois if he has heard anything and he said he had no idea because who knows what he does all day at the apartment. So he looked into it and told me what happened. I went onto the AirFrance website and it still said that my flight was scheduled to take off on time Friday at 4:10. I was still worried so I called AirFrance and the woman told me to check back in the morning but as of right now it was still scheduled. I checked the London-Heathrow airport and all of their planes were grounded because when the volcano erupted, all the ash made its way over to london and was now pretty much sitting over the UK and Heathrow was shut down and no flights were coming in or going out.
At that point I was pretty nervous but I still went out and got all the stuff I needed for London, including my ticket to the airport. When I came back I checked my ticket again and it was still the same. I started packing and all that stuff and picked out my classes and sent all the info to Lizzie so she could register for me just incase my plane did take off. At that point I really didn't care if my flight was delayed, I just wanted to go. I tried watching Lost but I feel asleep towards the end so I have to re-watch it. That night the announcement was made that Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports had been closed until at least 2pm Paris time tomorrow. Not good news for me...
This morning I got up early, showered, grabbed some breakfast, and then turned on my computer. I checked my email right away but didn't get anything from AirFrance saying that my flight was cancelled. I checked the website and it said that the airport was still closed and wouldn't re-open until 2pm...same news as yesterday. I trid calling the number on my ticket to get more information because I really wasn't sure what to do. I guess the number that is on there is to the people in the US who work for AirFrance and since it was only 3am back home they obvs weren't there. I tried calling them in France and got hung up on 3 times because too many people were calling. I finally got through, and after 20 minutes on hold, got to talk to someone. We had our entire conversation in French, which made me feel good, but the news she gave me was horrible. She said that my flight was cancelled and the very earliest I could leave would be Monday morning because of all the re-scheduling they have to do and they aren't sure what this cloud of ash is going to do yet. In case you were wondering, the ash is really bad for the jet engines and can cause them to fail in the air....Anyways, she told me that she couldn't refund my ticket because I bought it through the US site and I'd have to call them to do that later.
I was pretty bummed out at that point. I checked the Eurostar website and a one way ticket to London tonight was $353 USD....they were the same price for tomrrow too. I also checked bus scheudles and they are completely booked until Wednesday. So I'm basically stuck in Paris and I won't be going to London. Mother Nature seriously hates me. The last time I went to London I got stuck at the airport for over 7 hours because of the snow. If it's not snow it's ash....go figure. I also find it kind of funny that a volcano is ruining my plans. Like how crazy is that? I wasn't the only one who's plans are not messed up. A lot of people were trying to get to Dublin this weekend, like Katie, and some girls in IPP and those flights were also cancelled. I left for class feeling pretty sad.
Class was good, there weren't many people there. Our professor is also having trouble getting out of Paris. He's supposed to fly to Madrid and then to some tiny tropical island but he doesn't know if he will be able to go. After class I checked the AirFrance website again on my phone and the airport is still closed. They aren't even opening until 8pm tonight. It's not even a guarentee that flights will go out after that. Europe is pretty much one big mess right now all because of this stupid volcano. After class I went to this cafe, bought a sandwich, pastry and drink and then went into the Luxembourg gardens and ate lunch in front of the prettiest tulips I have ever seen. Then, when I finished I took a nice long walk home and listened to my music really loud because I'm just so annoyed. What makes me angry is you can't even see this "ash cloud" it's a sunny, clear day. I don't know....maybe it hasn't gotten here yet. This is all a mess. I keep imaginging this cartoon valcano sptting out lava and ash and shaking its fists (because in my mind it has hands) and shouting "BWHAHAHAHAH YOU AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE!!!!!"
So here I am. I really hope that this ash cloud thing doesn't cause problems with Greece. I just bought my ferry ticket today and everything else is booked for the week. I really have no idea what this cloud is going to do. I guess it all depends on the weather. I'll keep you updated since I have nothing else to do besides hang out in Paris...which it's that bad. It could be worse.
Bisous!
oh ps, I'm blaming everything bad that happens from now on on Iceland and their stupid volcano. If I stub my toes it's toally Icelands fault!
On Sunday Renee left for vacation. Around 1:15am the buzzer rings in the apartment. I told you all how Renee left the door open so Mathilde could get in. I don't think she thought about the fact that she doesn't have the little key thing you need to get in downstairs. So Mathilde rings the apartment. I answered and told her the door to the apartment was open and then went back to bed. When I woke up Monday morning, Mathilde had already left for work and Jean-Francois was sleeping in the living room. I have no idea what time he got there. Class was boring so I won't talk about it. Me, Mathilde and Jean-Francois had dinner together that night. I was worried it was going to be super awkward but it wasn't too bad. A commercial for Nurse Jackie came on and Jean-Francois asked if I watched it and I said no, but I watch Dexter, which is on the same channel. Turns out he really likes Dexter too.
Tuesday I didn't have class so I went to H&M and bought a new jacket. It's too hot for my NorthFace and I've had my eye on this jacket for weeks so I finally caved and bought it. It's super cute. The rest of the day I worked on my 2 papers for Costello's class and studied for my theatre test which was on Wednesday. We all had dinner again Tuesday. I didn't talk much. Jean-Francois and Mathilde went on about something but I couldn't follow along.
Wednesday the test in theatre was really easy. There were a few questions that asked for specific dates and I had no idea what the answer was so I just guessed. In translation class I did horrible on the packet we were supposed to do. It was really hard and all about pronouns. I'm not even good with pronouns in English, let alone French. I volunteered to give my translation of parts of this text we had to do and the professor pretty much ripped apart what I said. It was kind of depressing. That night we had a huge group study session on Skype for our lit test Thursday. There were seriously like 10 of us it was nuts. But it went pretty well. I didn't go to bed Thursday until super late because obvs I had to watch GLEE!!!! And I loved it.
Costello's class wasn't that bad on Thursday. I got a check plus (whatever that means) on my extra credit paper, and a 5/6 on the quiz on L'Assommoir which is pretty good considering I didn't read the end of the book until a few days ago. Only me and 1 other girl did this one topic (there were 2 options) for the paper. It kind of makes me nervous because we pretty much talked about the same stuff. So I don't know how that is going to go. Costello let us out late because someone started packing up before class was over so we had to rush over to lit.
Every thing started going downhill in lit. I got into the class and left right away to go to the bathroom. When I got back in someone asked me if I was going to London and I said yeah and they were like oh well there was this volcano that erupted in Iceland and a lot of flights have been cancelled. I just looked at them like they were crazy. I really thought they were joking with me. Like maybe they found out I'll pretty much believe anything you tell me...but it turns out they weren't joking. Lex texted me and told me she was looking into it at work because I was in class. My mood pretty much sunk lower and lower as class went on. The test, which wasn't that hard, took me forever to finish. I asked the professor if it was alright if I left when I turned it in because I needed to find out what was going on with my flight and she said it was fine. When I got back to the apartment I asked Jean-Francois if he has heard anything and he said he had no idea because who knows what he does all day at the apartment. So he looked into it and told me what happened. I went onto the AirFrance website and it still said that my flight was scheduled to take off on time Friday at 4:10. I was still worried so I called AirFrance and the woman told me to check back in the morning but as of right now it was still scheduled. I checked the London-Heathrow airport and all of their planes were grounded because when the volcano erupted, all the ash made its way over to london and was now pretty much sitting over the UK and Heathrow was shut down and no flights were coming in or going out.
At that point I was pretty nervous but I still went out and got all the stuff I needed for London, including my ticket to the airport. When I came back I checked my ticket again and it was still the same. I started packing and all that stuff and picked out my classes and sent all the info to Lizzie so she could register for me just incase my plane did take off. At that point I really didn't care if my flight was delayed, I just wanted to go. I tried watching Lost but I feel asleep towards the end so I have to re-watch it. That night the announcement was made that Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports had been closed until at least 2pm Paris time tomorrow. Not good news for me...
This morning I got up early, showered, grabbed some breakfast, and then turned on my computer. I checked my email right away but didn't get anything from AirFrance saying that my flight was cancelled. I checked the website and it said that the airport was still closed and wouldn't re-open until 2pm...same news as yesterday. I trid calling the number on my ticket to get more information because I really wasn't sure what to do. I guess the number that is on there is to the people in the US who work for AirFrance and since it was only 3am back home they obvs weren't there. I tried calling them in France and got hung up on 3 times because too many people were calling. I finally got through, and after 20 minutes on hold, got to talk to someone. We had our entire conversation in French, which made me feel good, but the news she gave me was horrible. She said that my flight was cancelled and the very earliest I could leave would be Monday morning because of all the re-scheduling they have to do and they aren't sure what this cloud of ash is going to do yet. In case you were wondering, the ash is really bad for the jet engines and can cause them to fail in the air....Anyways, she told me that she couldn't refund my ticket because I bought it through the US site and I'd have to call them to do that later.
I was pretty bummed out at that point. I checked the Eurostar website and a one way ticket to London tonight was $353 USD....they were the same price for tomrrow too. I also checked bus scheudles and they are completely booked until Wednesday. So I'm basically stuck in Paris and I won't be going to London. Mother Nature seriously hates me. The last time I went to London I got stuck at the airport for over 7 hours because of the snow. If it's not snow it's ash....go figure. I also find it kind of funny that a volcano is ruining my plans. Like how crazy is that? I wasn't the only one who's plans are not messed up. A lot of people were trying to get to Dublin this weekend, like Katie, and some girls in IPP and those flights were also cancelled. I left for class feeling pretty sad.
Class was good, there weren't many people there. Our professor is also having trouble getting out of Paris. He's supposed to fly to Madrid and then to some tiny tropical island but he doesn't know if he will be able to go. After class I checked the AirFrance website again on my phone and the airport is still closed. They aren't even opening until 8pm tonight. It's not even a guarentee that flights will go out after that. Europe is pretty much one big mess right now all because of this stupid volcano. After class I went to this cafe, bought a sandwich, pastry and drink and then went into the Luxembourg gardens and ate lunch in front of the prettiest tulips I have ever seen. Then, when I finished I took a nice long walk home and listened to my music really loud because I'm just so annoyed. What makes me angry is you can't even see this "ash cloud" it's a sunny, clear day. I don't know....maybe it hasn't gotten here yet. This is all a mess. I keep imaginging this cartoon valcano sptting out lava and ash and shaking its fists (because in my mind it has hands) and shouting "BWHAHAHAHAH YOU AREN'T GOING ANYWHERE!!!!!"
So here I am. I really hope that this ash cloud thing doesn't cause problems with Greece. I just bought my ferry ticket today and everything else is booked for the week. I really have no idea what this cloud is going to do. I guess it all depends on the weather. I'll keep you updated since I have nothing else to do besides hang out in Paris...which it's that bad. It could be worse.
Bisous!
oh ps, I'm blaming everything bad that happens from now on on Iceland and their stupid volcano. If I stub my toes it's toally Icelands fault!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
The longest shortest week ever!!!
I suck, I know. It's been a week since my last update. Remember in the beginning when I didn't have homework or a life and updated everyday? Ha.....it's a different story now. Alright, I'll try to make this a quick one since the past few have been super long.
Monday I didn't have class since it was Easter Monday, a legal holiday here. Renee didn't work either, which was shocking. She spent the majority of the day cleaning, shopping, and planting her garden out on the balcony. I spent the majority of my day writing my speech for theatre class. I read the entire play on Sunday and then made an outline of my speech to give to the class, as well as an excerpt I found online, and I wrote my actual speech out so it would make it easier to practice.
Tuesday I went to Victor Hugo's house in the 4th arrondissement. It's in this square called Place de Vosges. I had never been there before so I really didn't know what to expect. I met Jacqueline and Colie at the metro and then we made out way to Hugo's house. We walked through this old curved stone entry way and in front of us was this cute little park in the center of all of these buildings. We crossed the road and went into le petit jardin. It was really nice out so there were a bunch of people out. The park reminded me so much of the quad at U of I. I seriously was a little taken back by emotion. Jacqueline and Colie were like dude what's your problem? and I was like ummm I haven't been home in 7 months and haven't seen the quad in almost 8 so I'm gonna need a moment. I was kinda sad after seeing that because I miss U of I so much.
Anyways, we found Hugo's house, got our free tickets and then headed inside. It was on the 2nd floor was a lot more interesting than Balzac's house. There were a lot more personal items in the 5 room apartment. For example there were a bunch of letters that Hugo wrote to his favorite daughter Leopoldine and letter she wrote back to him. There was also a dress that she wore, and her ballet shoes. Leopoldine died when she was 19. She fell off this row boat into the Seine and the weight of her skirt pulled her down to the bottom and she drowned. Hugo was devastated by her death and was never the same. He went into exile (not because of her death but because he hated the government) and the rooms in the apartment were either before exile, during exile, or post exile. It was really interesting to see how differnt the rooms were during the 3 major stages of his life. For example, the exile rooms were really dark green and weird. One room had all these crazy Asian artifacts in it. We finished our tour and Jacqueline and I went to this groccery store that reminded me of a very small Whole Foods and then went to this cafe. The waiter at the cafe was a total prick. I bought a pastry and sat down to wait for Jacqueline because she had to go to an ATM. The waiter came up to me and asked what I wanted to drink. I really didn't want anything because all the drinks were really pricy but saw that I had bought a pastry and told me that I basically couldn't eat it here because I didn't pay the extra to sit at a table. I really don't know what his problem was. So I had to pay for a drink (I got an espresso for 2 euro...) and then he charged me an extra 50 cents to pretty much put my pastry on a plate. I was pretty pissed. The pastry was already 1.80 euro. Whatever, we won't be going back there.
I tried to read for the rest of the day because I had the last half of L'assommoir to finish for Thursday. Renee and I had lunch together and when she left I started messing around with her computer because I needed to print out my paper on Balzac's house for Thursday. After trying like a million times, I noticed that there was no black ink in the printer and the color ink was also running out. I saw that Renee bought new colored ink, but no black. I ran to the Monop (Monoprix) and picked up the ink which was around 16.90 euro. I got back, put it in and tried printing my paper to find out that it still wasn't printing in black. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't printing anything in black even though the cartrage was brand new. I gave up because at that point I had been messing around with it for 2 hours and I really needed do more reading. That night Renee came back late and I was in a pissy mood because I had spent all that money and the stupid printer didn't work. She walks in the door and I was still sitting at the kitchen table reading and she hands me New Moon on dvd. She went to the video store after work and rented it for me because she knew how much I wanted to see it again. I was so happy that she rented it but then I started complaining that the printer didn't work, so I felt kind of bad. Renee told me to try printing it in blue, which worked and she was like okay, so just hand that in. And I was like, Renee, I can't hand in a paper printed in blue ink. I tried it again in a dark, dark, blue and just left it at that. I watched New Moon that night and it was amazing. I hope I can watch it when I get home!!! WINK, WINK....
Wednesday nothing really exciting happened. Theatre class was boring. Benoit talked the entire time and translation class wasn't very interesting either. She gave us this huge packet to do for next week and told us that our first test will be the week we get back from break. So I can't wait for that...
Thursday Costello gave us a pop quiz on the ending of L'assommoir. Good thing I gave up on reading with 28 pages to go to the end....I wasn't very happy. Luckily we all were discussing what happened at the end of the book before class started so I think I might have done alright. It was only 5 questions so nbd. Our first big paper is due next week, along with our Hugo paper. He's kind of a jerk for scheduling them to be due on the same day. Thanks buddy! In lit we finished watching Colonel Chabert and it was really good. We also talked about the test for next week. I should probably finish reading Colonel Chabert....I think I'll end up reading the English translation because there's no way I have time to finish it. Thursday night I went to see Ciels for theatre class. I have to write a paper on it. I could go on and on about how awesome it was and how sweet the set was but this post is already too long and I'm tired...sorry. If you really want to know, ask me and I'll tell you.
My speech went really well on Friday. I was a little nervous but everyone seemed it like it. We took a lot notes during class. I think we're a little behind on our readings. We talked about our test on Wednesday and I don't think it will be that bad. I pay attention and take good notes so I'm not that worried. When class ended, Maya and Kirsten met me and we walked to get me sandwich and then jumped on the RER B to go to the movies. While I was waiting for my sandwich Benoit came up to me and said that he was really impressed with my presentation and I did really well. That made me so happy. I have a little crush on him even though he's kinda old and wears jeans that are tighter than mine. I'm just in awe of him. It's kinda lame. Anyways, we got on the train and met Katie at the movies to see Remember Me. It was supposed to be only 3.90 euro but I guess that is only for people under 21. The woman at the register looked at my ID and asked how old I was and I told her 21 and she was like okay, 7 euro please...and I was like ummm no, it's only 3.90 and she's like yea, if you're under 21, which you are not. Oh well...Maya had to pay 7 too but Kirsten and Katie didn't because Katie is only 20 and Kirsten is only 19...what a little baby. I LOVED the movie. God it was so good. I'm so buying it. And no, it's not just because Rob Pattinson was in it. He was amazing, Emilie de Ravin was amazing. UGH so good. And OBVS Rob was looking super good. When isn't he? We all went back to Katie's dorm after to find a couch to surf on in Athens and just hang out. It was a lot of fun. Katie sent a bunch of requests to people and we actually found someone to stay with today. He's a guy that lives like right in the heart of Athens which is amazing.
Friday night I tried doing some of my Hugo paper and got about halfway done with it when I pretty much gave up and started watching Superbad and talking to a bunch of people on Skype. Saturday I met Jacqueline, Chaniece and Colie at the FNAC to do homework. I finished my Hugo paper and attempted to start my L'assommoir paper, but Alla showed up and then John (sigh) and I got nothing done. They were setting up for this weird interview thing with some old guy talking about psychology so we all left. Some of them went to a park and I headed back to the apartment to get more work done because I knew if I went with them to a park I'd just end up sitting there and talking with all of them. When I got back Renee was getting ready to go on vacation. I read both passages for the paper and then looked up all the words I didn't know...which was like a million. I'm not sure what I did after that. I think I talked to my dad and then watched an episode of Parenthood and then went to bed.
Today I worked on my paper all day. I basically got a rough outline going, made a thesis and my introduction and the 2 other paragraphs. That's seriously all I did today. Oh and I didn't laundry and printed out my ticket for London. It's kind of pathetic that I was only able to write 3 paragraphs (single spaced) in a day. But, I guess they are in French. At least I have it outlined. Renee came back from work and then left for her vacation. She's going camping. I don't know why anyone in their right mind would want to go camping for vacation. She really didn't strike me as the camping type, but I guess they rented a RV or something. I guess Jean-Francois and Mathilde will be here some time this week. Mathilde is supposed to come sometime tonight. She better not buzz the apartment. Renee left the door unlocked for her so hopefully no one comes in the middle of the night to kill me or something. Just kidding....
It's gonna be a very buys week this week. I will try my very hardest to update at least once (probably Thursday) before leaving for London. All of my stuff is due Thursday or before so once the day is over I'm pretty much free.
Tomorrow is opening day. Hopefully the Cubs will be able to turn it around at home and I'll be singing 'Go Cubs Go' in Paris
Bisous!
ps. I didn't re-read this for spelling errors so sorry if it's filled with them. You should know by now that I can't spell
Monday I didn't have class since it was Easter Monday, a legal holiday here. Renee didn't work either, which was shocking. She spent the majority of the day cleaning, shopping, and planting her garden out on the balcony. I spent the majority of my day writing my speech for theatre class. I read the entire play on Sunday and then made an outline of my speech to give to the class, as well as an excerpt I found online, and I wrote my actual speech out so it would make it easier to practice.
Tuesday I went to Victor Hugo's house in the 4th arrondissement. It's in this square called Place de Vosges. I had never been there before so I really didn't know what to expect. I met Jacqueline and Colie at the metro and then we made out way to Hugo's house. We walked through this old curved stone entry way and in front of us was this cute little park in the center of all of these buildings. We crossed the road and went into le petit jardin. It was really nice out so there were a bunch of people out. The park reminded me so much of the quad at U of I. I seriously was a little taken back by emotion. Jacqueline and Colie were like dude what's your problem? and I was like ummm I haven't been home in 7 months and haven't seen the quad in almost 8 so I'm gonna need a moment. I was kinda sad after seeing that because I miss U of I so much.
Anyways, we found Hugo's house, got our free tickets and then headed inside. It was on the 2nd floor was a lot more interesting than Balzac's house. There were a lot more personal items in the 5 room apartment. For example there were a bunch of letters that Hugo wrote to his favorite daughter Leopoldine and letter she wrote back to him. There was also a dress that she wore, and her ballet shoes. Leopoldine died when she was 19. She fell off this row boat into the Seine and the weight of her skirt pulled her down to the bottom and she drowned. Hugo was devastated by her death and was never the same. He went into exile (not because of her death but because he hated the government) and the rooms in the apartment were either before exile, during exile, or post exile. It was really interesting to see how differnt the rooms were during the 3 major stages of his life. For example, the exile rooms were really dark green and weird. One room had all these crazy Asian artifacts in it. We finished our tour and Jacqueline and I went to this groccery store that reminded me of a very small Whole Foods and then went to this cafe. The waiter at the cafe was a total prick. I bought a pastry and sat down to wait for Jacqueline because she had to go to an ATM. The waiter came up to me and asked what I wanted to drink. I really didn't want anything because all the drinks were really pricy but saw that I had bought a pastry and told me that I basically couldn't eat it here because I didn't pay the extra to sit at a table. I really don't know what his problem was. So I had to pay for a drink (I got an espresso for 2 euro...) and then he charged me an extra 50 cents to pretty much put my pastry on a plate. I was pretty pissed. The pastry was already 1.80 euro. Whatever, we won't be going back there.
I tried to read for the rest of the day because I had the last half of L'assommoir to finish for Thursday. Renee and I had lunch together and when she left I started messing around with her computer because I needed to print out my paper on Balzac's house for Thursday. After trying like a million times, I noticed that there was no black ink in the printer and the color ink was also running out. I saw that Renee bought new colored ink, but no black. I ran to the Monop (Monoprix) and picked up the ink which was around 16.90 euro. I got back, put it in and tried printing my paper to find out that it still wasn't printing in black. I couldn't figure out why it wasn't printing anything in black even though the cartrage was brand new. I gave up because at that point I had been messing around with it for 2 hours and I really needed do more reading. That night Renee came back late and I was in a pissy mood because I had spent all that money and the stupid printer didn't work. She walks in the door and I was still sitting at the kitchen table reading and she hands me New Moon on dvd. She went to the video store after work and rented it for me because she knew how much I wanted to see it again. I was so happy that she rented it but then I started complaining that the printer didn't work, so I felt kind of bad. Renee told me to try printing it in blue, which worked and she was like okay, so just hand that in. And I was like, Renee, I can't hand in a paper printed in blue ink. I tried it again in a dark, dark, blue and just left it at that. I watched New Moon that night and it was amazing. I hope I can watch it when I get home!!! WINK, WINK....
Wednesday nothing really exciting happened. Theatre class was boring. Benoit talked the entire time and translation class wasn't very interesting either. She gave us this huge packet to do for next week and told us that our first test will be the week we get back from break. So I can't wait for that...
Thursday Costello gave us a pop quiz on the ending of L'assommoir. Good thing I gave up on reading with 28 pages to go to the end....I wasn't very happy. Luckily we all were discussing what happened at the end of the book before class started so I think I might have done alright. It was only 5 questions so nbd. Our first big paper is due next week, along with our Hugo paper. He's kind of a jerk for scheduling them to be due on the same day. Thanks buddy! In lit we finished watching Colonel Chabert and it was really good. We also talked about the test for next week. I should probably finish reading Colonel Chabert....I think I'll end up reading the English translation because there's no way I have time to finish it. Thursday night I went to see Ciels for theatre class. I have to write a paper on it. I could go on and on about how awesome it was and how sweet the set was but this post is already too long and I'm tired...sorry. If you really want to know, ask me and I'll tell you.
My speech went really well on Friday. I was a little nervous but everyone seemed it like it. We took a lot notes during class. I think we're a little behind on our readings. We talked about our test on Wednesday and I don't think it will be that bad. I pay attention and take good notes so I'm not that worried. When class ended, Maya and Kirsten met me and we walked to get me sandwich and then jumped on the RER B to go to the movies. While I was waiting for my sandwich Benoit came up to me and said that he was really impressed with my presentation and I did really well. That made me so happy. I have a little crush on him even though he's kinda old and wears jeans that are tighter than mine. I'm just in awe of him. It's kinda lame. Anyways, we got on the train and met Katie at the movies to see Remember Me. It was supposed to be only 3.90 euro but I guess that is only for people under 21. The woman at the register looked at my ID and asked how old I was and I told her 21 and she was like okay, 7 euro please...and I was like ummm no, it's only 3.90 and she's like yea, if you're under 21, which you are not. Oh well...Maya had to pay 7 too but Kirsten and Katie didn't because Katie is only 20 and Kirsten is only 19...what a little baby. I LOVED the movie. God it was so good. I'm so buying it. And no, it's not just because Rob Pattinson was in it. He was amazing, Emilie de Ravin was amazing. UGH so good. And OBVS Rob was looking super good. When isn't he? We all went back to Katie's dorm after to find a couch to surf on in Athens and just hang out. It was a lot of fun. Katie sent a bunch of requests to people and we actually found someone to stay with today. He's a guy that lives like right in the heart of Athens which is amazing.
Friday night I tried doing some of my Hugo paper and got about halfway done with it when I pretty much gave up and started watching Superbad and talking to a bunch of people on Skype. Saturday I met Jacqueline, Chaniece and Colie at the FNAC to do homework. I finished my Hugo paper and attempted to start my L'assommoir paper, but Alla showed up and then John (sigh) and I got nothing done. They were setting up for this weird interview thing with some old guy talking about psychology so we all left. Some of them went to a park and I headed back to the apartment to get more work done because I knew if I went with them to a park I'd just end up sitting there and talking with all of them. When I got back Renee was getting ready to go on vacation. I read both passages for the paper and then looked up all the words I didn't know...which was like a million. I'm not sure what I did after that. I think I talked to my dad and then watched an episode of Parenthood and then went to bed.
Today I worked on my paper all day. I basically got a rough outline going, made a thesis and my introduction and the 2 other paragraphs. That's seriously all I did today. Oh and I didn't laundry and printed out my ticket for London. It's kind of pathetic that I was only able to write 3 paragraphs (single spaced) in a day. But, I guess they are in French. At least I have it outlined. Renee came back from work and then left for her vacation. She's going camping. I don't know why anyone in their right mind would want to go camping for vacation. She really didn't strike me as the camping type, but I guess they rented a RV or something. I guess Jean-Francois and Mathilde will be here some time this week. Mathilde is supposed to come sometime tonight. She better not buzz the apartment. Renee left the door unlocked for her so hopefully no one comes in the middle of the night to kill me or something. Just kidding....
It's gonna be a very buys week this week. I will try my very hardest to update at least once (probably Thursday) before leaving for London. All of my stuff is due Thursday or before so once the day is over I'm pretty much free.
Tomorrow is opening day. Hopefully the Cubs will be able to turn it around at home and I'll be singing 'Go Cubs Go' in Paris
Bisous!
ps. I didn't re-read this for spelling errors so sorry if it's filled with them. You should know by now that I can't spell
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Joyeuses Paques!
Happy Easter everyone! Sorry once again I haven't been able to update on a regualr basis. It's been a busy week and now that I've given up on homework for the night I'll catch you up on everything I've been up to.
I didn't have my theatre class this week because our professor was away performing some play that he's in. So I didn't have his class on Wednesday and Friday which was nice. My only class on Wednesday was translation. We spent all 3 hours going over our packet of passe compose and imparfait.....that's the 2 main ways to conjugate French verbs in the past tense. There are also other ways, but those are the 2 that are used most often. There was over 30 exercises in the packet and it took us forever to go through them all. I felt really bad for this girl because she kept getting mixed up as to when you have make the subject agree with the verb and what not. The teacher kept correcting her. Everyone messed up though so she wasn't the only one. Needless to say class draged on and on like it always does.
Thursday I got my quiz back from Costello and ended up with a 14/20 which is pretty good I guess. We talked a lot more about Les Miserables and we also started talking about L'assommoir by Emile Zola. It's pretty good so far, it's just really long. In Madame Berthon's lit class I accidently told her that I didn't read the rest of Le Colonel Chabert. She only told us to read one chapter, and I told her that; to which she replied, well you didn't have class last week so you could've read the rest of it! She's such a sweet, old lady she wasn't angry or anything. I just gave her a smile and shrugged my shoulders. I really don't think she cared. She told us all what the book was about and we started watching the movie. I really like it so far. Gerard Depardieu is in it....he's Colonel Chabert. Madame Berthon started passing around this bibliography for another author for next week but she didn't make enough copies so I didn't get one. She said not to worry about it so I don't have homework to do for this week.
That night I decided to go to the movies because I didn't have class on Friday. After class, I walked back home with Chaniece, Collie, and Pilar (all girls in IPP) so Chaniece and I could drop off our things. I brought Collie and Pilar with me to the apartment and after dropping off my stuff I took them to the Orange (one of the phone companies in France) so Pilar could buy a phone. Chaniece met up with us and we all went to the Monoprix next door so I could buy some candy for the movie. Chaniece, Collie and Pilar don't have a year long metro pass and since it was the 1st of the month they didn't buy new ones because since we are on break for the majority of April there really is no reason to buy one. Collie had a few extra tickets left over, I don't know what Pilar did, and Chaniece went through every turnstile with me. It's kinda illegal but whatevs, I was the one with the pass. Chaniece, Collie and I went to the student cafeteria for dinner. I had pizza, obvs. There were a bunch of little kids there and I was this boy reach his hand all the way down his pants (like inside his boxers) so he could pick his wedgie. It was lovely. After dinner Chaniece and I rushed to the movie theatre. We got to ride on the 14 (metro line) which is my fav. I was so excited. We saw Alice in Wonderland, which is Alice au Pays de Merveilles in French, in 3D. It was pretty good, I enjoyed it. I would've prefered to see it in regular format and not 3D because the 3D hurts my eyes after a while. When I got back to the apartment Renee was asleep.
On Friday I really didn't do much because I woke up with a horrible headache. I had to shut my curtains (which I never shut) because the sun was hurting my eyes. I ate, hoping that would make my headache go away (it didn't) and then took a shower, which didn't help either. I went to lay back down after doing all that because I was in so much pain. Renee came back for lunch and said I didn't look well. We ate and I had sort of made plans with Chaniece to go to this park near by but it was raining, cold, and my head still hurt so I decided not to go and ended up watching Glee, Parenthood (which I just started watching and really like) and the Hangover, which I had never seen before and LOVED it, and then took a nap at 5:30. It was seriously such a lazy day. I think my headache finally went away around 8pm before dinner. Speaking of dinner...it was soooo good! It really wasn't even that fancy or anything. Renee just made pasta, cut up some smoked salmon, and made a sauce. I could've just eaten the smoked salmon but it was so good with the warm pasta. God...DELISH! Oh, I also finally got my package Friday as well :)
Saturday I was woken up by Chaniece's text message at 9:54 am asking what I was doing. I responded.....sleeping. She likes to get up at like 8 every day because she's weird. I can see doing that during the week because we have school, but on a weekend? Seriously... After I ate and showered we decided to go to the Fnac down the street to study. She said that there was a cafe in the basement so I brought my computer and homework and met Chaniece at her host family's apartment. The cafe was pretty sweet. I camped out on this giant white leather sofa and Chaniece grabbed a big leather chair. I ordered a coffee because I felt bad sitting there and not buying anything. I started typing my paper for Costello's class on my visit to Balzac's house which is due on Thursday. I have it all written I just need to proof read and make sure all of my subjects agree with my verbs because he's really picky about that. I bought Christophe Mae's new cd because it was on sale and I really like his music. I think I've talked about him before. He's a French artist and one of his songs is called Dingue, Dingue, Dingue (YouTube it...it's really good). Dingue means crazy or wild btw... I really liked doing homework there so I def. go back.
Saturday night I had a ticket to see Les Justes for my theatre class. The theatre was seriously out in the boonies/ghetto and it took forever to get there. I was on the 4 and it was so crowded...it was really bad. I was smooshed in a corner with this smelly black guy seriously right on top of me. Of course, he got off at the same stop as I did so I had to deal with his smelly-ness for awhile. I got on another train and was really worried that I was going to be late because by the time I got on it was already 8:20 and the show started at 8:30. I ended up taking the right exit from the metro and made it to the theatre just as the alarm was sounding that the show was about to start. I sat next to Alex (another girl in IPP) and Amira. I didn't see anyone else from class. The play was really good, it was just very emotionally draining and long. It was 2 hours 35min....without an intermission. I really didn't eat dinner that night (I went to McDonalds after Fnace and got something to eat there) but luckily I brought a handful of Starbursts with me. Les Justes is about this group of Russian terrorists attempting to kill the Grand Duke. They fail once but then manage to succeed on the second attempt. There really was no decor to the play. It was just a wall and this ramp thing. There was also a table and some small chairs no one used in other acts. The weirdest part of the play was none of the actors looked at each other when they talked to one another. They either looked at the audience or at the ceiling, wall, or just stared off into space. I really didn't like that. They all were super emotional about everything and there were a bunch of pauses. It's possible that there were a lot of pauses because the play was subtitled in English so maybe they had to go slow enough so it could keep up with them. The subtitles were above the actors on this little screen. It was nice having them there because when I didn't understand what they said, I could just look up and read it. I felt really smart when they would say the line and the translation wouldn't be on the screen yet, but I knew exactly what they said. And it wasn't a little baby whimpy sentence either....I'm so French it's insane! The play ended at 11:15 and I went straight home. I had popcorn for dinner around 12 when I got home. I didn't end up going to bed until like 2....
Today's obvs Easter. I heard Renee get up at 8 but then I feel back asleep. I swore she told me she wasn't working today but when I got up she wasn't here. I thought maybe she went to see a friend or went to church or something but she told me she hardly ever goes to church. I spent the day reading Les Bonnes for my theatre class because I have a presentation on Friday. I finished the entire play (around 111 pages) and then started outlining my speech. I'm the first to go (which I usually don't like to do) but I really wanted to get it out of the way and I figured that if I go first I don't have any expectations to live up to but my own so I can basically do whatever I want. I didn't get Easter dinner (because Renee ended up working today) :(
I don't have class tomorrow because all the schools are closed because it's Easter Monday. I haven't had Easter Monday off since forever. However, I'll probably be doing homework all day. I haven't even started the readings for L'assommoir yet for the week. I also have translation homework to do. I don't have class on Tuesday either, but I never do. I probably won't be able to update until next weekend because I have a lot going on this week. I have my paper for Costello's class, my speech, readings for Costello and theatre to do, as well as translation homework, and tickets to a play on Thursday. Oh, I also want to see Remember Me, which opens on Wednesday, but I might just do that on Friday.
Here's a little countdown....
12 days until London
17 days until Greece
77 more days until HOME!
Bisous et Joyeuse Paques!!!
I didn't have my theatre class this week because our professor was away performing some play that he's in. So I didn't have his class on Wednesday and Friday which was nice. My only class on Wednesday was translation. We spent all 3 hours going over our packet of passe compose and imparfait.....that's the 2 main ways to conjugate French verbs in the past tense. There are also other ways, but those are the 2 that are used most often. There was over 30 exercises in the packet and it took us forever to go through them all. I felt really bad for this girl because she kept getting mixed up as to when you have make the subject agree with the verb and what not. The teacher kept correcting her. Everyone messed up though so she wasn't the only one. Needless to say class draged on and on like it always does.
Thursday I got my quiz back from Costello and ended up with a 14/20 which is pretty good I guess. We talked a lot more about Les Miserables and we also started talking about L'assommoir by Emile Zola. It's pretty good so far, it's just really long. In Madame Berthon's lit class I accidently told her that I didn't read the rest of Le Colonel Chabert. She only told us to read one chapter, and I told her that; to which she replied, well you didn't have class last week so you could've read the rest of it! She's such a sweet, old lady she wasn't angry or anything. I just gave her a smile and shrugged my shoulders. I really don't think she cared. She told us all what the book was about and we started watching the movie. I really like it so far. Gerard Depardieu is in it....he's Colonel Chabert. Madame Berthon started passing around this bibliography for another author for next week but she didn't make enough copies so I didn't get one. She said not to worry about it so I don't have homework to do for this week.
That night I decided to go to the movies because I didn't have class on Friday. After class, I walked back home with Chaniece, Collie, and Pilar (all girls in IPP) so Chaniece and I could drop off our things. I brought Collie and Pilar with me to the apartment and after dropping off my stuff I took them to the Orange (one of the phone companies in France) so Pilar could buy a phone. Chaniece met up with us and we all went to the Monoprix next door so I could buy some candy for the movie. Chaniece, Collie and Pilar don't have a year long metro pass and since it was the 1st of the month they didn't buy new ones because since we are on break for the majority of April there really is no reason to buy one. Collie had a few extra tickets left over, I don't know what Pilar did, and Chaniece went through every turnstile with me. It's kinda illegal but whatevs, I was the one with the pass. Chaniece, Collie and I went to the student cafeteria for dinner. I had pizza, obvs. There were a bunch of little kids there and I was this boy reach his hand all the way down his pants (like inside his boxers) so he could pick his wedgie. It was lovely. After dinner Chaniece and I rushed to the movie theatre. We got to ride on the 14 (metro line) which is my fav. I was so excited. We saw Alice in Wonderland, which is Alice au Pays de Merveilles in French, in 3D. It was pretty good, I enjoyed it. I would've prefered to see it in regular format and not 3D because the 3D hurts my eyes after a while. When I got back to the apartment Renee was asleep.
On Friday I really didn't do much because I woke up with a horrible headache. I had to shut my curtains (which I never shut) because the sun was hurting my eyes. I ate, hoping that would make my headache go away (it didn't) and then took a shower, which didn't help either. I went to lay back down after doing all that because I was in so much pain. Renee came back for lunch and said I didn't look well. We ate and I had sort of made plans with Chaniece to go to this park near by but it was raining, cold, and my head still hurt so I decided not to go and ended up watching Glee, Parenthood (which I just started watching and really like) and the Hangover, which I had never seen before and LOVED it, and then took a nap at 5:30. It was seriously such a lazy day. I think my headache finally went away around 8pm before dinner. Speaking of dinner...it was soooo good! It really wasn't even that fancy or anything. Renee just made pasta, cut up some smoked salmon, and made a sauce. I could've just eaten the smoked salmon but it was so good with the warm pasta. God...DELISH! Oh, I also finally got my package Friday as well :)
Saturday I was woken up by Chaniece's text message at 9:54 am asking what I was doing. I responded.....sleeping. She likes to get up at like 8 every day because she's weird. I can see doing that during the week because we have school, but on a weekend? Seriously... After I ate and showered we decided to go to the Fnac down the street to study. She said that there was a cafe in the basement so I brought my computer and homework and met Chaniece at her host family's apartment. The cafe was pretty sweet. I camped out on this giant white leather sofa and Chaniece grabbed a big leather chair. I ordered a coffee because I felt bad sitting there and not buying anything. I started typing my paper for Costello's class on my visit to Balzac's house which is due on Thursday. I have it all written I just need to proof read and make sure all of my subjects agree with my verbs because he's really picky about that. I bought Christophe Mae's new cd because it was on sale and I really like his music. I think I've talked about him before. He's a French artist and one of his songs is called Dingue, Dingue, Dingue (YouTube it...it's really good). Dingue means crazy or wild btw... I really liked doing homework there so I def. go back.
Saturday night I had a ticket to see Les Justes for my theatre class. The theatre was seriously out in the boonies/ghetto and it took forever to get there. I was on the 4 and it was so crowded...it was really bad. I was smooshed in a corner with this smelly black guy seriously right on top of me. Of course, he got off at the same stop as I did so I had to deal with his smelly-ness for awhile. I got on another train and was really worried that I was going to be late because by the time I got on it was already 8:20 and the show started at 8:30. I ended up taking the right exit from the metro and made it to the theatre just as the alarm was sounding that the show was about to start. I sat next to Alex (another girl in IPP) and Amira. I didn't see anyone else from class. The play was really good, it was just very emotionally draining and long. It was 2 hours 35min....without an intermission. I really didn't eat dinner that night (I went to McDonalds after Fnace and got something to eat there) but luckily I brought a handful of Starbursts with me. Les Justes is about this group of Russian terrorists attempting to kill the Grand Duke. They fail once but then manage to succeed on the second attempt. There really was no decor to the play. It was just a wall and this ramp thing. There was also a table and some small chairs no one used in other acts. The weirdest part of the play was none of the actors looked at each other when they talked to one another. They either looked at the audience or at the ceiling, wall, or just stared off into space. I really didn't like that. They all were super emotional about everything and there were a bunch of pauses. It's possible that there were a lot of pauses because the play was subtitled in English so maybe they had to go slow enough so it could keep up with them. The subtitles were above the actors on this little screen. It was nice having them there because when I didn't understand what they said, I could just look up and read it. I felt really smart when they would say the line and the translation wouldn't be on the screen yet, but I knew exactly what they said. And it wasn't a little baby whimpy sentence either....I'm so French it's insane! The play ended at 11:15 and I went straight home. I had popcorn for dinner around 12 when I got home. I didn't end up going to bed until like 2....
Today's obvs Easter. I heard Renee get up at 8 but then I feel back asleep. I swore she told me she wasn't working today but when I got up she wasn't here. I thought maybe she went to see a friend or went to church or something but she told me she hardly ever goes to church. I spent the day reading Les Bonnes for my theatre class because I have a presentation on Friday. I finished the entire play (around 111 pages) and then started outlining my speech. I'm the first to go (which I usually don't like to do) but I really wanted to get it out of the way and I figured that if I go first I don't have any expectations to live up to but my own so I can basically do whatever I want. I didn't get Easter dinner (because Renee ended up working today) :(
I don't have class tomorrow because all the schools are closed because it's Easter Monday. I haven't had Easter Monday off since forever. However, I'll probably be doing homework all day. I haven't even started the readings for L'assommoir yet for the week. I also have translation homework to do. I don't have class on Tuesday either, but I never do. I probably won't be able to update until next weekend because I have a lot going on this week. I have my paper for Costello's class, my speech, readings for Costello and theatre to do, as well as translation homework, and tickets to a play on Thursday. Oh, I also want to see Remember Me, which opens on Wednesday, but I might just do that on Friday.
Here's a little countdown....
12 days until London
17 days until Greece
77 more days until HOME!
Bisous et Joyeuse Paques!!!
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