i haven't really done anything today besides pack for germany, worry about traveling, and play on fbook. bleh. i'm all antsy and stuff. i need to sleep. honestly.
oh, so i'll be out of town and away from the computer all weekend, meaning i won't be blogging. don't worry, i'll probably make up for it with a novel-length post.
20 September, 2007
19 September, 2007
my australian friend lisa
chris and i were walking back from the metro station today when this happened.
lisa: (with an accent) "are you two from the states?"
me: "yeah, we're from california."
lisa: "i heard the accents and just knew. here's my life dilemma: i can't decide whether i want to live in london or paris. i have to decide soon. what do you think?"
okay, that wasn't the conversation verbatim, but you get the gist. she was hilarious. she was spilling about how she's usually all put together and in control, but here, since she doesn't speak any french, she's lost and frazzled. she misses her family and friends but has her french boyfriend (who now thinks she's crazy because she bawled the other day about being homesick). she was a screen writer in australia and worked on a pretty big show there. she gushed when she said she was on imdb, but lamented the fact that it was some crappy script that she didn't even like. she's looking into working at hostels, but chris and i suggested that maybe she go work at fat tire (haha) or maybe even at aup. chris played career counselor for her, laying out reasons to stay here and reasons to go to london.
anyway, after a 10 minute conversation on the street corner, we exchanged mobiles (oh, i love that). she goes, "seriously, give me a call. we're like neighbors! you can come visit the psycho cat i live with."
i love strangers so much.
oh, we also impulsively booked tickets to barcelona today. we're headed to spain dec 12-14...ON MY 21ST BIRTHDAY! i'm gonna celebrate my 21st birthday--my day of us legality--in freaking spain. TODAY=AWESOME.
lisa: (with an accent) "are you two from the states?"
me: "yeah, we're from california."
lisa: "i heard the accents and just knew. here's my life dilemma: i can't decide whether i want to live in london or paris. i have to decide soon. what do you think?"
okay, that wasn't the conversation verbatim, but you get the gist. she was hilarious. she was spilling about how she's usually all put together and in control, but here, since she doesn't speak any french, she's lost and frazzled. she misses her family and friends but has her french boyfriend (who now thinks she's crazy because she bawled the other day about being homesick). she was a screen writer in australia and worked on a pretty big show there. she gushed when she said she was on imdb, but lamented the fact that it was some crappy script that she didn't even like. she's looking into working at hostels, but chris and i suggested that maybe she go work at fat tire (haha) or maybe even at aup. chris played career counselor for her, laying out reasons to stay here and reasons to go to london.
anyway, after a 10 minute conversation on the street corner, we exchanged mobiles (oh, i love that). she goes, "seriously, give me a call. we're like neighbors! you can come visit the psycho cat i live with."
i love strangers so much.
oh, we also impulsively booked tickets to barcelona today. we're headed to spain dec 12-14...ON MY 21ST BIRTHDAY! i'm gonna celebrate my 21st birthday--my day of us legality--in freaking spain. TODAY=AWESOME.
18 September, 2007
just smile and nod
tonight i ate dinner with mme jeanson, paul, and mme jeanson's parents. they spoke really quickly in french throughout pretty much the whole meal...i would pick up on parts, but not a lot (i think someone is getting married on the 6th of october, which they kept repeating and rolling their eyes at). then they would look at me and ask me a question really slowly, like i have some mental problem...which, i guess i do. my french is awful, and that's my mental problem.
i'm going to oktoberfest on friday. OHMIGOD!!! i can't wait to experience this once in a lifetime thing and to hang out with people i haven't seen in forever. actually, i'm excited just to hang around guys. there are NO MEN at aup and no good ones in this city. oh, of course i'm exaggerating. but i really do miss just hanging out with the guys...i get along really well with boys and usually always have a good time just kicking back. i haven't had that guy bond here...the pretty boys at aup hang out in cliquey groups, smoke a lot, and are assholes cuz they know they have their pick of the crop.
who needs to fall in love in france anyway? bah.
i'm going to oktoberfest on friday. OHMIGOD!!! i can't wait to experience this once in a lifetime thing and to hang out with people i haven't seen in forever. actually, i'm excited just to hang around guys. there are NO MEN at aup and no good ones in this city. oh, of course i'm exaggerating. but i really do miss just hanging out with the guys...i get along really well with boys and usually always have a good time just kicking back. i haven't had that guy bond here...the pretty boys at aup hang out in cliquey groups, smoke a lot, and are assholes cuz they know they have their pick of the crop.
who needs to fall in love in france anyway? bah.
17 September, 2007
complain complain complain
i'm angry right now. i know that i could take a nice stroll, listen to my "feel good" playlist and eat a baguette to make me feel better, but i don't feel like doing that. i feel like bitching.
my french class is HORRIBLE. it's supposed to be beginning french 2, so you'd think that the prof would assume we have a basic understanding of french, but not enough to understand full conversations, etc. or, at least, that's what i was expecting. but no. this woman who teaches my class speaks incredibly quickly, sometimes mumbles, uses vocabulary that nobody has ever heard and yells at us when we can't understand her. honest to god, those are the 80 most stressful minutes of my day, hands down. in the middle of class i just wanted to cry because i had NO IDEA what was going on. i was looking through my french dictionary, trying desperately to grasp what the teacher was talking about, when she calls me out. i looked at her helplessly, blushed, and said the word i didn't know. the only reason that i'm not dropping this class is that almost everybody in the class feels the same way as i do...in a class of 20, about 3 people understood the class today. after we walked out, the remaining 17 of us kind of looked at each other in disbelief. holy shit.
oh, and then i went to buy a book at the aup bookstore (read: a room the size of a bedroom). aup is really advanced and they do everything very efficiently. buying books is an example.
1. walk up to a woman sitting at a table and tell her your classes you need books for. she asks how you will pay.
2. she scribbles the class numbers on a piece of scratch paper and puts that piece of paper in a box on the wall 3 feet away. she calls for a man to pick up the note.
3. the man looks at the note and disappears into the back. another woman at the desk looks at you and asks how you will pay.
4. the man brings the book out. the woman at the desk rings you up for one arm and two legs. you pay and exit.
heaven forbid i could pick out the book myself, or even hand that note to the book guy. that'd be way too hard. it'd also apparently be too difficult for aup to put their class registration online. nah. it's much easier for every student to wait in a long line for one person to check if a class is opened or closed.
ucsb, i miss you so badly.
my french class is HORRIBLE. it's supposed to be beginning french 2, so you'd think that the prof would assume we have a basic understanding of french, but not enough to understand full conversations, etc. or, at least, that's what i was expecting. but no. this woman who teaches my class speaks incredibly quickly, sometimes mumbles, uses vocabulary that nobody has ever heard and yells at us when we can't understand her. honest to god, those are the 80 most stressful minutes of my day, hands down. in the middle of class i just wanted to cry because i had NO IDEA what was going on. i was looking through my french dictionary, trying desperately to grasp what the teacher was talking about, when she calls me out. i looked at her helplessly, blushed, and said the word i didn't know. the only reason that i'm not dropping this class is that almost everybody in the class feels the same way as i do...in a class of 20, about 3 people understood the class today. after we walked out, the remaining 17 of us kind of looked at each other in disbelief. holy shit.
oh, and then i went to buy a book at the aup bookstore (read: a room the size of a bedroom). aup is really advanced and they do everything very efficiently. buying books is an example.
1. walk up to a woman sitting at a table and tell her your classes you need books for. she asks how you will pay.
2. she scribbles the class numbers on a piece of scratch paper and puts that piece of paper in a box on the wall 3 feet away. she calls for a man to pick up the note.
3. the man looks at the note and disappears into the back. another woman at the desk looks at you and asks how you will pay.
4. the man brings the book out. the woman at the desk rings you up for one arm and two legs. you pay and exit.
heaven forbid i could pick out the book myself, or even hand that note to the book guy. that'd be way too hard. it'd also apparently be too difficult for aup to put their class registration online. nah. it's much easier for every student to wait in a long line for one person to check if a class is opened or closed.
ucsb, i miss you so badly.
un jour beau
i just had the most stupendous day. woke up, ran through the park (i finally got out jogging in paris! yay), showered and checked out some rome stuff. then maddy and i decided we should take advantage of the 75 degree sunny weather and planned a voyage to montmarte and sacre couer (er however you spell that). we got the most DELICIOUS ice cream/gelato i've ever had. if i were elisa living in italy, i'd gain at least 10 pounds from eating so much.
on a whim, we decided to go to the top of the eiffel tower. we watched the sun go down on the city and every light switch on. it was more phenomenal than i had imagined.
this weekend is the weekend i fell in love with paris.
on a whim, we decided to go to the top of the eiffel tower. we watched the sun go down on the city and every light switch on. it was more phenomenal than i had imagined.
this weekend is the weekend i fell in love with paris.
16 September, 2007
what i was thinking about on my run this morning
how much i love the ocean. just being near it makes me so incredibly happy. so it's been decided...i'm going to live near the beach when i grow up.
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