1/3 of the way there

#4, 5, 9, and 15 done and done

#4 My signature perfume: A combination of Honeysuckle and Jasmine and Orange Blossom from Jo Malone. Ok, I feel kinda bad about this one because Jo Malone is from London, but I couldn't resist. I also got an amazing candle that smells like Christmas, but better.

#5 Catacombs! So so creepy! I visited them with my sister when she was here. You can check out her uber creepy photos on facebook. Yay the bones of 6 million dead people!
So there was a guard who was working down in the catacombs making sure people didn't touch the bones, but it was really creepy (sorry for the repetition. I need to find a better word) because he was sitting in a chair in a dark corner whistling softly to himself. Can you imagine that being your job? Also, they check your bags when you exit to make sure that you don't try and steal any remains.

#9 Le Bon Marche. One of my favorite stores in Paris, and the original Grand Magasin. I ended up buying my Jo Malone perfume there, but also went to the Marc by Marc Jacobs section and tried on this incredible creation:

Oh Marc, how I love you. It was gorgeous, and looked amazing on. If only it wasn't 385 euros! I think that counts as trying on something expensive.

#15 I went on a date with a French boy. Enough said.

So that's 5 of 15. I've tickets to see a ballet at the Palais Garnier, and I will do the Eiffel Tower eventually (wow, tangent just popped into my head. The adverb "eventuellement" in French does not actually mean eventually, but possibly. Hooray for Atelier d'ecriture!) Not sure if Carla will happen and Les Miz won't, but I'm doing my best. I swear, no accordion players ever play La Vie en Rose! I thought that would be an easy one!

Last weekend my dad was here, and we went to Switzerland for the day to see Lorin Anderson, my high school small group leader, marry her Swiss beau. I'm so so jealous. I mean, it hit me during the middle of the reception that she is going to spend the rest of her life speaking French (which she's just learned), raising bilingual children, and living in Switzerland on the edge of Lake Geneva. I want to do that!!!

And tomorrow I jet off to see Jeannie, my lovely college friend, get married in Texas. Wow, life is interesting.

xoxo
B

Holding my breath

Tonight's schedule:
12am - 6am fete at the Palais de Congres
Could be a night to remember
We'll see demain.

(Obama, please, please, please win)

I'm horrible

Sorry for the delay. So much has happened recently and I've been too overwhelmed to catch up.

1) So, I've officially decided to return to Whitworth next semester. As many of you know, I've been debating this for a while, and I finally made up my mind. Some of my reasoning behind it: I love Paris. I love France. I love speaking French. But I absolutely hate going to school here. It's hard enough having to go to class and do homework in Spokane, but it's absolute murder doing it here in Paris. Plus, I'm very worried about not actually learning anything from these classes by having to deal with the language barrier. Paris isn't going anywhere. I can come back when I'm done with school and can just enjoy life. Plus, I really miss Whitworth. And I have so many friends there who won't be there when I get back if I stay the whole year, and I just can't see how an extra four months is worth that. I don't want to have to completely start over my senior year for the fourth year in a row. So I'm going back, and feeling good about it.

2) Last weekend I went to London! It was seriously the perfect weekend. I arrived Thursday night after taking the Eurostar and went to Lisa Gilham's flat. I can't tell you how much I love her. Friday Lisa worked most of the day, so I had my "tourist" day. I visited the V and A, and then went to the British Library where I spent half an hour obsessively reading Thomas More's last letter to Henry VIII. Loves it. I went to the amazingly cute restaurant where Lisa works for a late lunch and had a tomato salad, french green beans, and a glass of white wine. It was one of those surreal moments where I realized that I was in a foreign country in a restaurant being served my one of my friends. So weird. After I finished, Lisa had here break and we bought some chocolate and went to a nearby garden and had one of the best conversations of my life. When her break was almost over, we went back to the restaurant and had tea and cake until she started working again, and I went home and went to bed. Saturday, I spent most of the day with Zoe. :) We went to Starbucks and wandered around London for a bit. We ended up at Leister Square and went to Wagamama for lunch/dinner. It was so freaking good, but for some reason I was extremely full. After that we went and saw the Duchess with Keira at the Odeon. We went out for drinks at a hotel bar, and then saw Phatom! It was my fifth time and Zoe's first. So good.
Sunday was a magical day. It was rainy, but that didn't stop Lisa and I from playing. We went to Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park to look for fairies and made up a story about naughty little British girls (found as a photo album on Lisa's facebook). We then found Peter Pan. Afterwards, we had lunch at a pub and Nick Kemner (who was in London and I really wanted to see) called my cell phone. I literally jumped up and ran out of the restaurant to answer. We set up a time to meet, and Lisa and I went off to have tea at the Orangery (the British spell it strangely). So of course I was late to meet up with Nick. It was really dramatic. Lisa and I were rushing through the streets of London. When I finally met up with him, we spent a really chill evening just walking around and hanging out in the lobby of his hotel. Monday I was a little sick from playing in the rain the day before and Lisa and I had a good sick day lunch with tomato soup and tea. Then I headed back to Paris. One thing. On the way over to London, I experienced the weirdest culture shock. Everything was in English! I felt so awkward speaking it.

3) So I guess that brings me to today. This evening, I went to a "pot" hosted by Madame Hervier, who works with the program (and actually was a Sweet Briar student who met her French husband while studying abroad). It was fun. Sarah and I talked for a while with some nice French-American guys. It got interesting right as I was leaving. I literally had my coat on and was heading for the door when I noticed a group of French guys looking at me and talking. Before I knew it, one of them came up to me, and asked if I was going. I said I could stay for a minute, and we talked for a little bit, while his friends kept making comments. We exchanged numbers, and as I was writing this, we chatted on facebook. Hmm. Life could get interesting. Score : The World - 0 . Me - 1.

bisous
B

It's been a while

This week was crazy.

So last weekend, when I should have been doing the massive amounts of "devoirs" that were due this week, I did absolutely nothing. Which meant when Monday came around (my last actual day of the weekend) I had to nail myself to my desk chair and work.
In short, here was my week:
Monday - read a book in french (10 hours)
Tuesday - classes (6 hours) finish book (1 hour) write paper on book (5 hours) bedtime: 3:30am
Wednesday - class (2.5 hours) choir rehearsal (2.25 hours) read article in french (1-2 hours) begin paper on said article (1 hour) bedtime: 1am
Thursday - finish paper (2 hours) class (4 hours) go see play (3 hours) dinnertime : 12 am, bedtime: 1 am
Since Friday is the beginning of my weekend, I didn't set my alarm. And I woke up today at 1pm. Needless to say, I was exhausted.

Play:
I went to see Tartuffe last night! I don't get to see professional productions of show's I've been in that often (especially in the language and city they were written in), and I was curious to see a different version of it.
And it wasn't bad. I may be biased, but I thought Rick's production was much better.
This version was...well, it wasn't funny. It was actually pretty dark.
The whole thing was set in modern times, and the living room of Orgon's house was extremely severe-looking and bare. Rather than starting out with the family coming home from a party and swing dancing ( a la Whitworth's production), Mariane and Valere were making out in her bedroom, Cleante and Elmire were drinking and laughing by the front door, and Damis was watching tv (I swear it was porn too, but the tv set was all fuzzy and I was in the 2nd balcony).

The director had a very different vision of the characters as well. Orgon (who was amazing) was clearly the main character of this version. When he came in from his trip to the country, he walked in with a giant wooden cross wrapped in tissue like a bouquet of flowers. Another touch that I loved was that Orgon was dressed exactly like Tartuffe (like a high school freshman tries to dress like the popular senior). They both wore dark slacks, a white turtleneck, and a wooden cross on a rope around their necks. Later on in the show, Madame Pernelle and Loyal were both dressed like that as well.
To make Orgon the strongest character, the director made many of the other characters a lot weaker. Mariane especially was like a timid, anorexic mouse. And Dorine, was...well... I have to give the actress credit, because the real Dorine was taken ill suddenly and this was a replacement (who had never done the show before and read all the lines from a script in her hand). She was just very different than my Dorine. First, she was old, and not at all sexy or "brazen". And she just alternated between angry and afraid. Not a whole lot of depth to her character. Elmire and Damis were very good, and Tartuffe was very different than Nik's portrayal. He wasn't quite as outwardly slick and slimy as Nik was. Just very creepy in that very repressed, devout way. And during the table scene he TOTALLY felt up Elmire.
My favorite by far was Valere. Moliere doesn't put that much into that role, but this guy was great. I mean, everything this guy did was amazing. When he first enters, right before the fight scene with Mariane, this guy runs in with a bottle of champagne and three glasses, and you think he's sincerely happy and has no idea about the plan for Mariane to marry Tartuffe. But then he pours a glass for Mariane, Dorine, and himself, makes a toast to Mariane and Tartuffe's upcoming wedding, and downs his glass in one sip. My other favorite part was when he storms off and Dorine has to chase after him. He actually ran out the front door, and Dorine runs out after him yelling at him to come back. And Valere yells out "NO!", but runs back into the room and abruptly slowing down like he was coming back in reluctantly.
It was still extremely dark. The set kept changing to go to lower rooms in the house. It started out in the living room, and then the whole wall of the backdrop rose, and the lower part of the backdrop made a basement, and then it rose again to create a lower third story (if you can imagine that), and on each lower floor, the walls were more cracked and deconstructed, like a figurative decent into hell, or Tartuffe's facade crumbling away. And the whole seduction scene took place on a table that had been set up as an alter in the basement, with a big cross on it and everything.
So yeah. Interesting take on the play, but I liked ours better.

This weekend I'm just going to relax. I'm being lazy today, and will probably go to Printemps in the afternoon. Saturday is "let's play tourists" day with my friends, and we're going to actually go see monuments and musees that we haven't seen yet (even though we've lived here for a month). How time flies.

I'm starting to forget some English words. And I've started throwing in random French words when I do speak in English, especially "sauf" instead of...wait...I seriously can't think of the English translation. Wait. Except? and "meme" instead of same or even.

B

La fete!!!

So, I may have written about this before (but I'm too lazy to actually go back and check), but I was invited by my French friend Sophie (the girlfriend of the nephew of my host mom) to her 20th birthday party last night. And to give you a hint about how fun it was, the party started at 8pm, and I just got back home (at 1pm the next day)

Well, that's mostly because my host mom wanted me to sleep over so I wouldn't have to try to figure out transportation from the banlieu to Paris at 4 in the morning.

It was super fun. I wasn't sure what to get Sophie, so I ended up buying a beautiful bouquet for her at a local fleurist (is that even a word?). I got there early ish and started meeting all of her friends as they started arriving. Who for the most part (like 90%) were guys. Sophie goes to an engineering school, so that figures.

A note. I love to "faire les bises" (which is when two French people greet each other by kissing twice on the cheeks). I mean, everyone does it here, even when you are meeting for the first time. It's not uncommon at all to go in for one cheek and quickly throw in your name while heading over to the other one. It seems to make relationships so much easier. I mean, I feel pretty comfortable starting a conversation with someone that I've already been in that close contact with rather than someone I just kind of nodded to. The one problem I do have is that I never catch the names. So despite all the fun I had last night, I only know the names of Sophie, her boyfriend Nelson, and another girl who was there (Virginie). Well, and someone else, but I'll get to that later.

I was totally awkward and silent at first, but I started relaxing a little bit as my French comprehension level improved, and I talked with quite a few people. And yes, they had a pseudo karaoke machine set up (well, speakers, a computer with music, and a microphone) and yes I was pressured into performing a rendition of Toxic, but everyone seemed to enjoy me singing, if not my awkward dance moves.

Okay, now the important stuff. Sophie has a friend who is super beau. I mean, imagine French Jude Law. So of course my mind goes straight to "hmm the French future husband that I'm going to meet at this party?" and of course I'm terrified to talk to him and he seems a little reserved (confindent reserved, not nervous reserved). But eventually I join in a few conversations he's having with some people, and eventually it was just the two of us talking. Not like we're in love already, but two things 1) there was something about Ireland and living on a boat and 2) His family has a house near St. Malo. Anyways. It was fun. This morning over breakfast I asked Sophie what his name is and it's Julien (Julian?). But she didn't seem to think he was that cute. Different tastes I guess. On va voir ce qui va se passer.

I finally died about 4:30am and went to sleep in Sophie's sister's room. And this morning was totally awkward because I didn't want to be the last one awake. So I kept setting my alarm for half hour increments and then waiting to see if I heard anyone else up. Yeah, I know. I'm a total dork.

Long story short. French party officially a success. I hope that I continue to see Sophie after this (and possibly her friend...?)

Bisous
B

As one problem ends, another begins

So I finally resolved my class problem. Yesterday, I timidly walked into Madame Gree's office and pleaded my case again. After hearing what I had to say, she finally agreed to let me do this, as long as I take more classes elsewhere next semester.

I let out a huge sigh and then went shopping as a mini victory party.

Then today happened.

Today that started out so bright and beautiful, until I went to the TD (basically the "work" class) of my Sorbonne class, where my brain absolutely exploded and I realized that I am way too stupid to be here.

I'm joking about it, but in reality I'm panicking. Last class, we read a document about German Nationalism, and he started using it as an example on how to write a French-style critique paper of a document. Which, of course, is something pretty much everyone else in the room basically already knows how to do, since it's a third year class (which the professor mentioned on many occasions).

For one thing, he had the document read out loud, and I was too busy focusing on whether I had the correct pronunciations of the words to actually read the words, so of course when he started discussing it, I had no idea what the document actually said. (Even if I did, thanks to my "liberal Californian" high school education, I never learned European history [aka the stuff that actually matters] since we were so busy having a "diverse, multicultural" education).

I thought I may have been out of the woods on this, but today was even worse. Not only did he continue to speak and I continued to not understand him, but we are actually GOING TO HAVE TO WRITE THIS INSANELY DIFFICULT PAPER ON THIS INSANELY DIFFICULT SUBJECT. The "Introdution" is due next class (In which I have to describe the context of when the document was written [the French occupation of Prussia in the 1800's {What the hell is Prussia?}], something about the author [a German philosopher who followed in the tradition of another German philosopher I've never heard of], and describe a brief summary of the text [that I didn't understand a word of], while discussing the main problem [WHAT??!?!?].

I am screwed. I'm starting to become aquaintences with an Italian girl who is in the class (and in my choir as well), and the entire time we shot each other pained looks. She's equally as lost.

I am an idiot. An absolute idiot. I have no basic understanding of European history in the 19th century, let alone the background to write 3rd year level french dissertations, let alone the level of the French language to understand the words my professor is saying.

I started freaking out in the middle of class that I cannot be here for the year. I mean, if this is what all of my classes will be like next semester (except I'll have three instead of just one) I will fail. I'm afraid I won't get through this semester. Right now, I'm seriously seriously considering going back to Whitworth next semester. Not in a "I'm sad and lonely" way, but in a "I am too stupid to be here" way.

I don't know what to do.
B

Frustrated

Stupid, stupid, stupid classes.

I am frustrated.

So here's the thing. My classes right now are PERFECT. I get 4 day weekends each week. I love the subject material (and they are needed for my major). I'm learning a lot and I'm working hard.

The only problem is, this semester I happen to be taking only one class at the actual Sorbonne Nouvelle, and three that are created through the Sweet Briar program.

While we are only supposed to be able to take 2 Sweet Briar classes a semester.

Look, it's not my fault that 1) The class I wanted to take at l'Institut Catholique on globalization conflicts with my Sorbonne class, 2) The class I tried at FACO that is similar to my EU class was awful, and 3) The Etudes Europeenne department at the Sorbonne Nouvelle starts at the third year (aka Masters level courses), and has only one class that fits into my major.

But our academic director keeps telling me I need to find another class elsewere (although I could eventually get an exception blah blah blah).

I understand and respect the 2 SBC class rule. However, I am a year long student and will have the chance to take more classes elsewhere next semester. And I do not understand why this bureaucratical rule would ever take presedence over 1) the classes I NEED for my major and 2) classes that I'm actually interested in. There is no way in hell that I'm going to add another masters level class that I don't need and that doesn't interest me to my already full courseload. And I mean, I'm also in a French choir, which is basically the same as a fifth class already.

Gah.

Anyways, I just have to go into the academic directors office and tell here that she needs to give me an exception for this semester. It's not as if Whitworth cares at all and won't accept three SBC classes. I'm the first person ever from Whitworth to do this program. They're just thrilled with the fact that I'm here.

And another thing. I hate being difficult and whiney, so it makes me upset to even have to demand an exception. I may even have to threaten to leave the program a semster early if I can't take what I want/need. And I have to do all this in French. I'm trying to put it off. Let's just say that the last time I talked to her about this situation, I was on the brink of tears.

Well. Everything will work out. Either I'll get my way, or I'll be back at Whitworth next semester.

I hate that I even have to deal with this. Am I right in thinking that this is the stupidest problem ever?

On a good note, I just bought tickets to go to London in a few weeks to see Lisa, Zoe, and Bispers.
Sigh
B