i can't believe i forgot to write about this!

the rugby world cup kicked off here last night. we went to a few pubs and everyone was watching the match (which the french lost, 12-17, to argentina). it was so much fun...everyone was cheering, booing, "oh no"ing together. LOUDLY. these frenchmen do love their rugby. er, actually, i just read an article that says they actually didn't cheer so fiercely for their rugby team before this, but now that it's here...damn, are they proud of their team.

2 great things happened since i last wrote

well, one of them is sarcastically great. but you had to expect that from me.

1. paul (my french brother who is 6) and i played today! he mostly just pinned me on the floor and shot at me with the pistol, yelling "te mortes!" (you're dead!). and then he pretened to blow all his toys up. then he tackled me again. i decided that boys are the same everywhere in the world.

2. i slammed my face into a pole today. a bunch of us (like 35) were walking on the street. i saw an american bar and in my head i was like "hey! english! i know how to read that!" so i focused on the words on the bar and wasn't paying attention to the fatty pole in front of me. so *bam* i rammed my body flat into it. my head made this huge, hallow sound on the pole. the 25 people walking behind me let out this huge "OHHH!!!" yeah, i was embarassed. but then we got delicious martinis, so all was good.

i almost break my thumb every time i come in the door

seriously. the front door lock to my house is SO HARD to open. i couldn't do it the first two nights; mme jeanson had to wake up and get me. i felt awful. so now i just have to put all my energy into twisting this key. i know i sound lame, but these french locks are really hard to undo. my face gets all red and my body gets shaky cuz i have to twist so hard.

OHH i bought a really cute sweater at h&m today! only 15 euro (so like 20 bucks). i'll take pictures in it so you can see it. but a bad thing also happened. i went to try it on and *boop* the button to my jeans fell off in the dressing room! so now i don't have a top button on my jeans. i laced it with floss temporarily. lol...good look, i know.

yay, someone from aup is living just upstairs! and mme jeanson said she's a poli sci major too. c'est bon. lol...it was cute. mme jeanson was like "nicole! i have a friend for you!" like i'm her kid and she's setting maybe we'll have that poli sci class together and we can go in on a book. holy crap, those books are expensive. 98 euro for a paper back? hell no. i'll find it somewhere else.

i've been walking almost literally all day (on my feet from 11 am to 5 pm with about a 45 minute break...phew). i need rest before this pub crawl tonight.....crazy aup kids.

i still feel like i'm at camp

i haven't settled in yet. it's not a bad thing...i just still feel like i'm at camp, and i only have a few days left, so i better enjoy it all.

but this is it. the eiffel tower, the museums, the baguettes, the adorable french kids, the metro...this is life until christmas (!!!). i have a feeling that, when it hits me, i'll be frightened and homesick. i'll tell you when it does, but for now...i've been too busy and happy to miss home too much.

this experience has already made me miss the ease and comfort of home/sb though. there, i have it all figured out. a guy from aup (sam, who led our paris by night bus tour after taking 5 shots and downing a few gulps of wine) was talking about the clubs/publications/student gov't activities you can get involved in, and that was when i realized that i acutally set up a pretty sweet life for myself back in sb. i've got the nexus (love and miss you!) and i've got ambitions to do other things on campus. i've got beautiful friends and i'm in a major i love. really, it won't be a difficult life to return to.

i'm getting more comfortable with living where i don't know what people are saying 79% of the time. when i first arrived 6 days ago (shit, only 6?), i was shaking in my boots. i couldn't read any signs at the airport and anybody who spoke french sounded like they were speaking a million miles a minute. now, i can listen to the conversations and catch the words, even i don't know what they mean. i can read the signs at the museums/metro stations/food places and get the general meaning. OH and mme jeanson had our first french conversation! it was liberating...it gave me confidence to speak in french. that's what i'm really lacking.

oh, and we had GREAT cheap wine before the bus ride tonight. we had to drink it out of a boot on the bus because the bus driver didn't want us to have it, but it was very fun (sorry mom and dad!). check out the pictures on fbook.

tomorrow we're going to try walking to school across the seine. mallory, chris and i are awful at directions. julia's coming, so i hope she's better. if not...well, i guess we can't get lost. school is right by the eiffel tower. thank goodness that thing is huge.

why the french aren't fat

they french eat very deliberately. at meal time, they intentionally enjoy every bite (or at least are aware of every piece that goes in their mouth). they don't tend to eat lunch at their desks, and they don't eat on the go.

in the states, we often don't make time for a meal. we munch mindlessly in front of the tv, while we're doing homework, or while we're on the internet. we don't notice that we keep eating that bowl of popcorn until it's all gone. so it makes sense that we don't notice that we overeat until we're obese.

parisians also walk/run a LOT. they're often late for the metro/bus/rer, and even if they're not, they're just generally rushing. this quick pace+less eating makes them healthier.

or maybe it's all those cigarettes they smoke. so what if they have cancer? at least they're skinny. that's all life is about, anyway. ((barf))

i was supposed to go to bed an hour ago

but then i got on the internet, uploaded and tagged pictures, got too excited emailing/chatting with people, etc etc. and now it's 2330 (i'm forcing myself to use military time).

more aup registration stuff today...aka more waiting in lines for things that take a milisecond. i sat in a closet for a while. a guy from the clubs talked to us, too. i'm pumped to joint the jogging club. i miss taking runs SO badly. that's my escape from the world...the hour i get just to myself, where i don't have responsibilities or anything. we went to the luxembourg gardens and saw a buncha people running around there. that sounds absolutely amazing.

the gardens were so vivid. the grass was perfectly trimmed, the trees and bushes precisely shaped, everything just in line. i don't know a lot about the place historically, but i'd love to go back and learn. i could sit in that jardin forever.

go look at my pictures on facebook.

i spent 7 euro on candy

which is really like $10. and i finished most of it. i know it sounds like a lot, but of course it was a rip off, so it wasn't that much candy. but it was the best candy EVER. i'll try to bring some back to the states for y'all to try.

it's only night four?

so much has happened. i feel like i've been here at least 2 weeks, yet i'm just settling in to my 4th night.

crazy things happened today. i got my first glass of french wine. the aup advisors yelled at us. we had a long, boring uc meeting.

but all of that was overshadowed by an amazing moment in my life. tonight, a big group of us UC kids hung out on the champ de mars with two guys playing guitars, a group of people from brazil, a few girls from the state of washington and some people from other places i didn't know. together we sang the beatles, jack johnson, CCR, pearl jam, bob marley, and some others. at 11 pm, as we were singing, the eiffel tower lit up from bottom to top and twinkled, as if it wanted to sing with us. it was the most amazing night i've been here. it made everything that has been tough better, and made me realize that i'm here. this is me, getting out and living life.

i don't even have the usual sarcasm in me. i'm too at peace.

le tour eiffel?

i saw the eiffel tower for the first time ever today. oh, wait, i just lied. i saw it in a cab two days ago (er...yesterday? shit). but today was the first REAL time. it was amazing (dur). but it was surreal...i still feel like i was just looking at a replica in disneyland or las vegas or something. i haven't gone up yet, but when i do, i think i'll try doing the stairs (presuming i'm in my running shoes...no way i'm doing that thing in my flats).

today was the first real day i had in "real" paris (aka not the crappy fiap). isabelle took my on a brief tour of the neighborhood this morning, just to show me where to get money and credits for my cell phone and groceries. we ate dinner together tonight (3 crepes...how french am i?) and i really enjoyed her company. she studied history at san jose state a while ago, which is why her english is so good. she proposed to her husband in new york, which to the parisians is more romantic than doing it in paris (so much for hte eiffel tower cliché). but then...she broke the news to me.

starting in a week or two, we'll be speaking french all the time. i looked at her incredulously. WHAT?! wtf mate. i didn't sign off for that. well, no, i guess i did...sorta. i know, i know, it'll be SO good for me and it'll make my french ten times better. but right now, conversation will be slow and difficult. that means getting to know the family will be slow and difficult. christophe and paul don't speak any english, so i'm prepared for some tough conversations. this will definitely be something to blog about.

speaking of paul...today he colored in a papillon (butterfly), knocked on my door and gave it to me. he was SO adorable. he's got his blonde hair parted on the side and gelled down, with the cutest glasses. i'll teach him english words, he'll teach me french.

oh, gosh, i was supposed to put pictures on fbook tonight...but i didn't. i got distracted by other fbook stuff (as usual).

i'm on a french wifi network now, so google and blogger are displayed in french. c'est dificil pour moi lire.

i love this city. there's history everywhere, which i never though i'd be so in to, but i really love it. so many other people have taken the same walks and snapped the same pictures as me. i'm amazed.

i'm tired, too. i'm about to fall asleep in the comfiest bed ever. mucho amore! er... beaucoup amour!

day two in paris

3/9/07 12:44 am paris time

I’m sitting at home (!!!) in probably the comfiest bed I’ve ever been in. I always thought I preferred firm beds, but this one is fluffy and I sink into it and I love it. My French mom has this comforter that just wraps around me and it is the best feeling in the world right now.

Oh, so I moved into my homestay…dur. I got here around 545 and because I thought I couldn’t fit into the elevator (3x3ft with 2 bags and a 2-foot backpack on? No way). So I lugged everything up 5 flights of stairs (or maybe 6) and knocked on what I thought was Mme. Jeanson’s door. Turns out not. It was these two old ladies who spoke French to me. I tried to explain that I was looking for Mme. Jeanson, but all I could say was “Madame Jeanson?” over and over. I’m sure i looked like a retard…but that’s not really any different than regular nicki, here or in the states.

Anyway, isabelle is really sweet. I have my own shower and I share the bathroom (ugh, that’s gonna be awk when I hafta poop). We have wi-fi (which she pronounced “wee-fee”). My building is absolutely gorgeous, as is my whole street. It’s filled with maybe 8-story buildings that have these cute curly black fences for balconies and…well I can’t really describe it. I’ll upload a picture to this post to show you.

We finally got out of fucking FIAP today. I understand now why the people at orientation at ucsb said it was the worst weekend of their life. But we already went into that yesterday.

We UC kids had a meeting today and the president/dean/some important guy from the school spoke. He was an absolute riot. He was talking about how we have to take it on ourselves to find out about the culture because the French aren’t interested in showing us around. He goes, “The French were happy before you came. They will be happy after you leave. They were crabby before you came. They will be crabby after you leave.” It freaked me out and made me really like the French at the same time.

I was freaked out because I haven’t done nearly enough research on this place (research=looking at travel books/websites/whatever crap aup and ucsb gave me). I’m gonna miss out if I don’t get on it soon, and I’m gonna have a list miles long of things that I wanted to do but never got around to.

This week I figure I’ll run around with my UC friends. I love them. I’ve met a bunch of great people already and we just clicked. Chris and I obviously did, then we met Maddie and Mallory on the plane, and they’re hilarious and the four of us get along really well. Then there’s Julia and Amalia and Kristen and and Ashley Jamie (who I owe euros for the cab!!) and lauren and a thousand other people who I cant’ remember because it’s 1 am and I’m tired as heck.

I ordered my first legal drink tonight! Some kinda beer at this English pub. It was really fun…soccer match on tv, loud guys around drinking beer, us hanging out and talking at a table. I just…I can drink here! It’s freakin me out still.

OHHHHH I SAW THE EIFFEL TOWER FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER TODAY! I thought I would get butterflies or feel something but it was just like…oh, there it is. Granted, I did only see it from the taxi. Tomorrow we’re gonna go have lunch on the lawn in front of the Eiffel tower and do some more tours and such.

Today was a thousand times better than yesterday…but I’m still not totally settled.

le premier jour

9/1/07 4:06 pm (paris, france)

aup has the WORST ORIENTATION EVER. Ucsb, I have to hand it to you; I never realized how efficient and almost painless the orientation process was (okay, I was stressed, but at least it was all my own doing, not the university’s fault). Hats off to you, o-staff.

So, lemme give you a run down of my day…literally, my last 24 hours.

6 am pst—check in at sfo for my flight that departs at 8am. I choked up and almost cried when I said bye to family, but I felt dumb walking down that people mover with tears in my eyes. Instead, I focused on the fact that I would be in one of the biggest, most exciting cities in the world in a few short hours. Ha..short.

8 am pst—leave sfo. I watched premonition with Sandra bullock…meh, it was okay. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Some time in the afternoon (maybe 4 pm east coast time?)—arrive in dc. The evil paparazzi—chris—snapped a few money makers as I walked out of the tarmac. Then we gave each other the biggest bear hug and freaked out a little. Then he grabbed my hand in excitement, but I told him it was a little sweaty cuz I was nervous and anxious. He told me no, my hands are always like that. He was right.

5:45 pm east coast time—leave Washington dc. Chris and I sat next to each other and Maddie and Mallory sat down the aisle from us. Party aisle. We met the funniest flight attendant ever. I tried to trip her 3 times. She was going to Paris because “Mommy needs to get her drink on.” We’re supposed to meet her in the 16th arrondisement in the big Paris Hilton.

Eons later (7 am paris time)—after a 7 hour flight, we FINALLY got to france. I would say paris, but to call charles de gaulle airport “paris” is sort of misleading. Our luggage was delayed a little bit, but we got it mostly without a hitch. We met the really helpful, really great, really smart AUP leaders who guided us down an elevator then neglected to find us. We found the shuttle that took us to FIAP (the hotel/dorm/what the hell is this that I’m staying in?), but we couldn’t fit all of our luggage in. So those brilliant AUP leaders left us in the middle of the bus stop for 20 minutes (literally, they were gone) before finally telling us to leave our luggage behind for 2 shuttles that would take our bags to FIAP. We were supposed to get on the bus. We were nervous to leave our precious stuff behind, but with those trusty AUP guys hanging around, we finally let go.
Oh, we also got our passports stamped and stuff. We stood in line for about an hour and a half for that. In retrospect, that’s not too bad.

11 am paris time—arrive at FIAP. We took a 40 minute bus ride here. Then we walked into the most unorganized mess I’ve ever seen. Actually, I’ll give’em credit. They would have been beautifully organized for about 100 people. But there seemed to be at least 500 of us. And the leaders didn’t know crap. We had to wait for our luggage for half an hour, wait in a line for an hour to check our luggage, and then wait in the line of all lines, the line that killed us UC kids, the line that made us look like bitches (yeah, I’m blaming it on the line). This STUPID registration line was fucking retarded. We waited in it for…gosh…must have been 4 hours.
What makes it take so long, you ask? Well these academic advisors meet with us each personally (500 people!) and tell us what info sessions to go to. Like we couldn’t read it on the schedule for ourselves. Luckily, we got a lunch break (some friends held a spot for us). If it weren’t for that, I surely would have passed out. We were all complaining loudly and I’m sure everyone hates us, but whatever. This isn’t AUP; this isn’t even real Paris.
All of us UC kids had one question. No, that’s a lie. We all probably have a thousand questions, but we could only think of a single one—WHEN THE HELL CAN WE GET INTO A BED?! 3 p.m. was when they would start giving out keys. That seemed like FOREVER away. And nobody knew when we moved into our homestays, either. Sunday? Monday? What time? They were almost as clueless as the eap office.

4:30 pm paris time—I’m sitting here on a bed in my jeans, shoes off my stinky feet, sweating in this shirt I’ve been wearing for 24+ hours now. But did you notice where I am? ON A BED! Ah, and I am happy once again.

sfo

8/31/07 6:20 am (pacific standard time)

I’m in the airport. I almost cried when family left. I got that knot in my throat and tears in my eyes, but I held back…not because I think it’s weak or anything, but because I didn’t want people to look at me and worry.
Okay, announcements, I get it. The Bay Bridge is closed for the weekend. Je n’ai pas savoir plus! That’s horrible French.
This is rambly. I just wanted to say…OMG. I’m almost in the plane (in an hour and a half)!!