Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Presentation

Well I have officially given my first presentation in French. Sure I have given small ones in my actual French class where no one else really speaks great French either, but yesterday I gave part of a presentation in front of my strategy class. I was terrified. Really I was. I practiced and practiced, but I don't know all the words necessary to give a business presentation so I had to partially read off the paper. I practiced pronounciation and the whole bit. I won't say the presentation went awfully, but I'm pretty sure no one understood me because I looked up at one point and the teacher was looking at me quizzically like, huh? Then the students were asking questions and I knew the answers to a lot of them but I couldn't contribute because I can't think fast enough to forumlate answers on the spot! I had one of those days with the language that was so frustrating it make me wonder if I'm ever going to be able to speak it. Thankfully my comprehension is much better, now just on to speaking...

lost in translation...

I am going to attempt a blog about one of the funniest moments of my life yet in France but I'm not sure how it will come off, so if it isn't funny on paper, when you come visit me you should have me recount it. I had a Kate-laughing episode for about 5 minutes and couldn't breathe. You know what I'm talking about, when I almost die because I am laughing so hard? You know the moments well because you look at me like I'm crazy for a while and then you can't help but laugh at me laughing. Anyway, on to the story...
So my roommate and I were talking to one of our French friends the other day and I was saying something about how the dogs that live at our landlords house need a bath because their hair was dirty. As I was saying this in French, he said that animals don't have hair. Or they don't call it that in France. Animals have fur. So I asked how to say the word fur in French. On an animal it is poilis (which is somewhat close to skin in French) The way to say fur in a piece of clothing is fourrure. I have horrible problems saying the French "r" especially when it is in the middle of a word with lots of "r"s, so I was trying to pronounce the word and he said, but be careful that you don't say fuhrer.
I asked why not and our French friend said in English "Because it means eclair"
I tried to clarify. "Eclair?"
He says "Yes, eclair".
The whole time I am thinking "Why would it be a bad thing to say eclair? And...I thought eclair was a French word! Why do they have another word for eclair?"
Finally my roommate and I figured we were missing something, so we asked one more time "Eclair?"
The Frenchman gave us an exasperated look and thought for a few seconds and scrunched up his face and contorted his mouth and said "HHHHHitler" Everything became clear. The French and their missing H's. I'm sorry it isn't as funny in a blog as it is in person.

Two days later I was working with my French group on our presentation and one of the students was sending an email and asked the group if everyone had something. I looked at all of them quizzically. 4 Frenchmen were staring at me repeating the the same word over and over again. Finally, one said really slowly Meecro soft Ohfeece. AHHHHH Microsoft Office! Those accents will get ya.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Carnaval

This weekend in Clermont there was a Carnaval celebration. With this celebration came a parade, so it being a beautiful mid 70s sunny day, we decided to head out and see the parade. Well we arrived a bit late, so we decided to go closer to the end of the parade route. The town isn't that big and the parade wasn't that long, so we figured that it would be where we were waiting by 30 min or so after the parade began. We forgot we are in France. An hour after the parade was supposed to start it made it to us. The first group was great fun and played fun music, but the parade was moving a bit slowly. Eventually, after we looked at the same act for 5 minutes standing in front of us, we decided that we weren't going to make it all the way through the parade. Someone had the bright idea to schedule the parade at the same time as a playoff rugby game (bad idea). We couldn't understand what was taking so long though. I wouldn't say it was the most organized parade I have ever seen. They needed to block off the sides of the street so that the parade could go without people passing through, but literally people off the street were just joining into the people walking for the parade. It was quite strange.
One of the best parts about the parade though was that all little kids were dressed up in fun costumes. I didn't get a picture of my favorite, a little Robin Hood, but this elephant was a cutie as well.
Then of course there were the normal parade people, clowns, people on stilts, jugglers, etc... I liked this lady on stilts the best and this guy was juggling 5 balls all at the same time. He was the person that was stuck in front of us for about 5 minutes before we decided to leave. Everytime he wanted to stop juggling he had to just let a ball drop because he could only catch 4 in his hands. This of course would be followed by him chasing the 5th ball. Quite amusing in and of itself!

Baking...

This weekend we were going over to some friends' place for dinner. These friends have an oven, so my roommate and I decided that we would make some chocolate chip cookies and brownies for dessert. Off to the store we went. It took us about 20 seconds to determine that the French don't bake a lot. Like I have said before, the baking stuff was in 3 different parts of the store and we had a difficult time deciphering if the brown sugar was actually brown sugar. We finally asked, and she said it was, so we bought it. We never did find baking soda, so we had to modify the recipe to what we had. The brownies I was making called for rum, but when I went to the local market, the only kind of rum they had was Malibu. Not gonna work, so I used water. Something highly amusing did happen though right before I started mixing everything. I was really tired, so decided to take a nap. I figured this nap would give the butter a great opportunity to soften, so I put it on the counter and went in to take about an hour nap. An hour later I return from my nap to find that my other roommate had put the butter back in the fridge! I wasn't amused at the time, but found it funny in hind-sight. This is only amusing because my dad used to do this to me all the time at home. Finally I had to start specially warning Dad NOT to put the butter away or he wasn't getting any treats.

Anyhow, I made the batter, it turned out yummy, but the cookies were another story. We had some fierce issues measuring. I just don't understand the measuring tactics here! Grams for everything, but 100g of sugar isn't the same as 100g of flour, meaning, sure you can weigh them and they will both be 100g, but you can't use a similar measuring cup. Somehow we made it work and they turned out pretty yummy. Our friends had no complaints.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Kate vs. the Volcano (aka Eyjafjallajoekul)

I ended up having to leave Dublin a day earlier than orignally planned due to a little volcanic activity in Iceland. I thought I was going to be ok because the trouble started on Thursday and I didn't have to fly until Monday, so really I was enjoying my time merrily until I woke up on Sunday. I went to church at 8 and got back to the hostel to check my e-mail and checked the Ryanair website and found out that all flights were cancelled on Monday until 3pm. Uh oh. So naturally the first thing I think is, I'm gonna have to take a ferry to France. I google up ferries from Ireland to France and determine that there is a ferry leaving from Rossmere in Southern Ireland at 6pm that night. Well shoot. Turns out I had to figure out how to get to Rossmere first. I couldn't get a ticket for the ferry online because their site was jammed (wonder why?). I walked to the bus station and figured out that the bus took 3 1/2 hours. So the latest I could leave was 1:30. That meant I had time for one activity before I left Dublin. My choice? The Guiness factory. That's how I ended up drinking a beer at 11:30am. (and yes it does taste different, and much better in my opinion, at the factory)I had to see it before I left though. So I hurried there, did the tour and drank my Guiness and made it back to the hostel to pick up my stuff. I called home in the interim and woke Mom and Pops up at 6am (they love me) and asked them to try and get the ferry ticket while I was on the bus.

The bus ride was beautiful, this is a little church I saw on the side of the road during the trip. I made it to the ferry dock. Turns out most of my bus was also trying to get on this ferry. There were people everywhere. I made it to the desk and thankfully the lady said they had a few more spots for foot passengers. Whew. Paid my 67 euro and jumped on the boat. Man it was impressive. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't a cruise ship with restaurants and a cinema! It was awesome. Until I had to sleep on the ground in a foyer, that wasn't awesome, but it wasn't horrible. The boat ride was 19 hours. Yes yes, I know. Quick observations from the trip:
- teennage boys annoy the crap out of me, but only, like normal men, when they get together with a bunch of other boys (men) their same age, I don't get it
- while waiting in one of the bars, I was sitting alone and there was a French couple behind me. younger couple, maybe early 20s. This woman walks into a relatively quite place where people are watching soccer match and was followed by 5 guys who looked like they were in her family. Anyway, the point is she got to the front of the room and turned around and in English said "There are seats up here" quite loudly. Well the couple behind me said under their breath (but loud enough for me to hear) "Loud Americans". Only problem?? This group wasn't American! She definitely had an accent that was not American. Sometimes I think we get a bad rap because every time someone hears English they thing the person is American because often they can't tell the difference between English accents. I so wanted to turn around and tell them she wasn't American, but I didn't.
- As noted before I had to sleep in a foyer with maybe 20 people lining the outside of the room. At about 4:30 in the morning I was awoken from an otherwise fitful sleep by a guy standing in the middle of the room blowing his nose like a train. Please dear god someone tell me how he thought that was a good place to do it? There are 20 people sleeping and he had already gotten up enough to make it to the middle of the room, why couldn't he have gone to the bathroom or walked 20 steps and gone out on the deck of the boat? For the love of jellybeans, have some consideration!!! I gave him an evil eye, but I'm not quite sure it was all that easy to decipher from a half-open groggy sleepy eye.

My next adventure in returning home was to find a train in Cherbourg, France to get back to Clermont. When I got to the train station (after a 4 km walk from the port) I asked the lady for a ticket. She gave me a ticket to Paris and told me to use the ticket I already had to get from Paris to Clermont. There was a train at 9:10 she said. So I wander around Cherbourg trying to find food at 3pm, of course not an easy task because the French eat at pre-determined hours. Then I jump on a train to Paris. 2 1/2 hours later I arrive and find the subway to take me to the other Paris train station. I arrive at the station at 8:40 and am trying to find my train platform, except I look at the board, no train. I panic, uh oh, what if she didn't tell me the right final destination or something. So I go to the ticket desk, only 462 people in front of me. Super. Another worker asks me if I need help, I tell him what is going on, he looks at the board and says, "I don't see a train". Einstein apparently. At this point, after some frantic looking for a train, I realize the lady screwed it up. She must have looked at the wrong destination. I realize that, in fact, I will not be getting to my own bed tonight. Ugh. I wait in line for an hour and get up to the ticket counter and the guy tells me I have to buy a new ticket because I didn't exchange the old one. I explain what happened and the lovely man gave me a free ticket. at 7:01 am the next morning.

Next up on the magical travels of Kate: finding an inexpensive place to say in Paris. I considered staying at the train station, but instead called my roommates and they found me a place. But it required getting back on the metro (and I couldn't take the direct route due to construction of course), then walking a quite scary walk to the hostel. I wasn't exactly sure where I was going and there were some creepy dudes on the street so I ducked in a store and they helped me. I got to the hostel and asked for a room, the guy said, "I'm not sure if we have one" I told him my roommate had called and he said, but yeah he's a guy and we have a spot for a guy. The poor man didn't know I was about to throw something really far. He found me a room, but when I got to the third floor, the room was full. Went back downstairs, he found another room. Got in, slept for 5 hours and woke up to return to the train station and catch my train. No adventures in the morning, everything went smoothly and I made it back to Clermont, 45 hours after the journey began, in one piece but in desperate need of a shower and a good night's sleep.

Thoughts on Dublin

After all the little relaxing places of West Ireland, I made my way on the motorway to Dublin. It was a great town and I thought of many of my friends while I was there. It would have been great to have some of you along, but it was fun to explore on my own as well.

- Sadly Dublin is an extremely expensive city. Not just food and lodging, but also to see their sights. The Book of Kells, which is a fantastic find for all mankind, was too steep for me. It is 8 euro just to see two pages of this book and another impressive room. While I'm sure it is great, 8 euro was 60% of how much my hostel that night cost. I'll research the site sometime.

- Dublin is also one of the few cities I have been to that makes people pay for the churches. And by pay, I don't mean a suggested donation. To go to St. Patrick's Cathedral it was 11 euro. I thought I'd scam the system (I know, I know) by going to church on Sunday morning but really it was just a eucharist service and I didn't get to see the whole cathedral because the service was held in the back part behind the altar. It looked amazing though.

- I did though, pay to go to the Jameson Distillery. the tour wasn't that exciting, but I was picked to do the whiskey taste testing at the end. Jameson really is better than Johnny Walker black label and Jack Daniels. Jack just hurt going down. Maybe a past bad experience made it less enticing, who knows. I also ended up meeting some fun people at the Jameson distillery that I hung out with all that night. There are perks to traveling alone.

- As I was walking to the distillery I passed a foccacia bakery, I was sad I didn't buy one of them that day because when I went back on Sunday they were closed.

- I found a gelato place in Temple Bar that was reminiscent of the places in Italy. Naturally I ate there twice in my stay.

- I also found a super cute coffee shop that looks just like one I'd like to own when I'm filthy rich and retired at 35. While it was also expensive, it was time enjoyed. It was called the Queen of Tarts. Clever.

- I ate fish and chips 3 total times on my trip to Ireland. The second time I had it served with mushy peas, while they don't sound good, they really were. The last time I had fish and chips, the fish had been smoked before frying. Really really yummy.

- I also did a free walking tour while in Dublin. I was thinking about doing a bus tour because they are fantastic ways to see cities if you don't have much time, but I heard about the walking tour and it was fun. Our guide was a lot of fun and I decided if I ever live in a city that has multiple tourist sites, I want to be a tour guide.

- My final sight seeing adventure in Dublin was the Guiness Museum. It was awesome. It reminded me of designing pages for yearbook in high school. The place was designed amazingly and it didn't hurt that I got a Guiness to drink at 11:30am on a Sunday morning. WHAT?? I went to church that morning. Plus, God owed me for making the next 3 days of my life Kate vs. the Volcano. This pic is of the 9000 year lease that Guiness signed when he bought the grounds where the factory is. Foresight huh?

Thoughts on Aran Island and Cliffs of Moher

In the middle of the west Ireland adventure we went to the Aran Islands. These are three charming little islands to the west of Galway.

-We took a ferry to the closest island because the ferry guys said it was the only one really open this early in the season. We got there and started walking around and there sure wasn't much to do. Thankfully it was a fantastic day and we were able to just walk around.

-We visited the same little pub 3 times during the journey and had some lunch and Guinesses there. Cute place.

-The really awesome thing about this little island was the rows upon rows of hand-built stone walls. Here is just an example, but they were everywhere. We were having quite the conversations as to why these walls were built, and while we settled on the keeping of animals and such, it was still amazing to see. The amount of stones this place had was crazy and some people spent the better part of their lives extracting these stones and piling them up.

- Apparently this is one of the few places where they speak Gaelic still to each other. I only heard it once, when the man who worked in the pub answered the phone and was speaking with a friend, but it was pretty cool to hear.

Moving onto the Cliffs of Moher:

- You now have to pay 8 euro just to park to see these natural wonders. Doesn't seem fair really that to see something so beautiful you need to pay, but I suppose that is how the world works.

- We went on the path to the left of the Private Property sign. According to my friends that live in Ireland, this is the path that all the non-tourists use when they want to see the cliffs. We had a nice dirt path instead of the paved one, but we also left the bus tour groups in the dust. Nice.
-There really are no words for how majestic these cliffs are. Simply stunning and even better with brilliant blue skies and soft warm winds. Awe-inspiring.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Driving on the Right!

Driving on the wrong side of the road was quite a task. I was driving a manual shift, but thankfully the clutch is still on the left and the gas on the right. The gear shift is the same as at home, meaning first gear is still on the top left, and 5th gear on the top right. Shifting with the left hand is a little more difficult though and many times I tried to start in 3rd gear because I hadn't made it all the way over to 1st. Oops. Also, the very first thing the guy told me was I had to push the gear shift down to get it into reverse. Good thing he told me because I would have been going forward all the time while trying to get in reverse. Navigating while driving is a whole nother story. I really prefer to drive in places I have never been with another person in the passenger seat navigating. Also, while I was driving behind people there wasn't much of a problem figuring out which way to go, but boy let me tell you, when I had to figure out what side to drive on without people to follow it took some serious thinking. I'm a smart girl, but whoa. Then pulling into parking lots and such was pretty confusing as well. Thankfully by the end of the week I had figured it out. Just in time to drive into Center City Dublin and get lost and drive around for an hour and a half trying to find the car rental place. Not as much fun, but I did get to see lots of Dublin by car!

Thoughts on Western Ireland

I flew from London to Shannon Ireland. I picked up a rental car that I would have for the week and drove up to a friend's place in Galway, Ireland. From there we visited a little down called Doolin, another called LaHinch and drove through many other great Irish towns on the way. There were quite a few intricacies of Ireland learned on this little adventure.
- One of the best parts of Galway was having the fish and chips from my friend's chipper. They were perfectly yummy and everything I have been thinking about for 2 months :-)
- The weather the whole time I was in Ireland was impeccable. Everyone asked me before I went ...WHY are you going to Ireland in April, it is going to rain the whole time? Oh really, I say. It didn't rain once the whole time I was there. Not a drop. But I did get a tanned face.
- I stayed with friends who have to heat their water before using hot water. How crazy is that? It isn't like they live in a 16th century place or something either. Their place was built not that long ago, but each time they want hot water they have to heat it and wait.
- I had cottage pie in one of the towns. Cottage pie for those of you that don't know is minced beef with vegetables covered with mashed potatoes and then baked. While this was spectacularly yummy, the real interesting part of the meal was that it was served with French Fries (chips). Yes, you read that correctly. I had a dish that is topped completely with mashed potatoes that was served with Chips. It is Ireland, they do love their potatoes. and frankly, so do I.
- Power plugs in Ireland have switches on them that must be turned on and off to use the power. I have no idea why, but you cannot just plug something into an outlet and have it work, the outlet must be switched on.
- One very dangerous part of being in a country where people drive on the other side of the road is that when you are a pedestrian, you have to remember to look the opposite way before crossing the street or you'll get plowed.
- the friends I stay with smoke, while this is neither here nor there, what I found interesting was that cigarettes are 7.75euro a pack. whoa nelly. Just another reason I'm glad I don't smoke.

on to the Aran Islands and Cliffs of Moher

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Thoughts on London

It feels like I visited London about 5 years ago, but it was only last weekend. Here are some thoughts on my trip:
- A ride on the underground in London costs 4 pounds!! That is astronomical. I went one stop and it cost me almost $6. If it weren't 11pm at night I would have walked. Ah the hassles of traveling alone.
- The first night I got a little lost trying to find my friend's place. He didn't have a cell phone yet, which led to me wandering around London until 1am when I found a hotel that I could use the internet. Moral of the story: I should have planned better, but am out of practice due to the ability to use cell phones
- The weather in London was spectacular and everyone was out and about. Londoners were telling me to enjoy the sun Saturday because it would be their "one day" of summer (they were wrong, it was nice on Sunday as well)
- Shows in London mostly don't run on Sunday, which I found odd, as I would think it is a big day for tourism. Seems to me they shouldn't run on Tuesday or something instead
- Speaking of shows, I had no idea that Andrew Lloyd Weber had a new show in London! Sadly I dind't have time to see it, but it is a sequel to Phantom. I need to read some reviews or something, but I really want to go back and see it.
- The Grand National horse race is crazy. We watched it with friends and I can't say that I thought it was all that humane. The track is about 4 miles long with tons of jumps for the 40 horses, if they fall and the jockey goes flying, oh well. Everyone else continues on.
- If you ever go to London and find yourself in the financial district, you should go to Smith's of Smitthfield. The breakfast was good and the place is pretty cool.
- Being back 8 years after living there was pretty crazy. Stuff was hazy, but I knew I had been there before!
- I like London more than Paris. Not really sure why, I think the way it is laid out is more condusive to enjoying the city. Plus they are better at mixing the old with the new.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Signs...

This post has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I live in France other than the conversation was started by an Italian that I would never have known if I weren't studying here. We were discussing birthdays and I told him I was a Virgo. He said, yeah obviously, you are the only Virgo I have liked, usually they are too rational. Ha. My roommate agreed that I'm super rational and the epitome of a Virgo. Well I don't pay much attention to all the astrological stuff, but surfing the web today I came across this:

Virgo (August 23 - September 22)
Virgos are known to be true perfectionists, with rational, active minds that deliver quick reactions and analytical answers. That's why wild salmon is your surefire brain food. Its omega-3 fatty acids pump up brain power, while niacin keeps cognitive thinking nice and steady -- perfect for a perfectionist! Stomach-soothing ginger is also an ideal food for Virgos, as your stomach and digestive system tends to be problematic.

Other than the part about liking salmon, which is actually my least favorite fish, I was pretty amazed by the assessment. Really there isn't much here, but the part that was interesting was the last part...I didn't realize that was a astrological sign commonality.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Consumption

The stereotype is that Americans consume more than the rest of the world. We are a consumption society. We spend more money, have more choices and generally like to have bigger and better things that the rest of the world. I'm not sure I'll go that far and characterize us all this way, but I will tell you one thing, the beverage holders over here are a bit smaller than they are at home. Take for example your normal morning coffee. At home? There is big cup of coffee, here? a shot of expresso really. I don't drink coffee or I might have taken a picture of the difference for you, but I do drink water and here is the difference between what I carry around to drink water out of and what French students use when they are "thirsty".
I was at the water machine filling up my water bottle the other day and a girl came out next to me and was like "I'm so thirsty too" Then she saw what I was filling up and she was like "whoa, you have a lot of water". Uh huh. She filled up her little cup and drank about two notches worth and took the rest back into the classroom to save for later. Are you kidding me? When I forgot my water bottle one day I had to stand at the water machine and have about 4 shots before I actually felt satiated. Come on now.

Emergency Vehicles

When you are driving down the street at home and you see flashing lights in your rearview mirror, or hear sirens, you generally pull over to the side of the road until the emergency vehicles have passed and the way is clear again. Here? No pulling over. Cars keep driving like normal and give the emergency vehicle space to go around, but no pulling over or really getting out of the way. Also, the emergency vehicles drive down the street all the time with their lights on, but no sirens. I'm not sure why, but I find this a little odd. I think it is because if I were driving one of those things I'd be like "GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!" Not necessarily because I needed to get somewhere fast, but just because I would have that power in the states :-) On another note, if I were in the ambulance I'd want people to get out of the way so I could get to the hospital without being stuck in traffic because no one pulls over.

Easter

At home we look forward to the Easter bunny bringing us baskets and all kinds of yummy chocolate and goodies in our baskets. Here? There is a bell that brings the chocolate. Ok probably doesn't bring it, but Easter is around a bell here, no Easter bunny. Of course unless you are in a big town that caters to American tourists (i.e. Paris). They do take full advantage of the chocolate selling season here. I asked some friends about Easter and while none of them said they were religious or celebrating the holiday for the religious reason, they were really looking forward to the family time and chocolate. Pretty similar to home huh? Of course the patisserie had lots of goodies for Easter and then there were stores with all the chocolates. I did successfully make it all the way through Lent without drinking a beer. It wasn't the hardest thing I have ever given up, but there were a few days that a nice cold beer would have been nice. I actually didn't drink a beer until Tuesday night. I really wanted a Boulevard Wheat at the home opener, but since I was only there in spirit, that would have been difficult.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Travel annoyances

Trying to get home from Paris early I recall two things that I hate about travel.
1. I got to the train station 2 hours early because my traveling partners were catching a flight and we didn't have time to eat together. When I got there I saw that there was a train one hour before mine, so I went to the ticket office to see if I could just change trains. It was 28 euro to change my train. The ticket cost 34 euro to start with. Just dumb.
2. Why are people totally oblivious to the world going on around them? While I was sitting waiting for the train platform to post, this family stopped right in the middle of a main walkway that was only wide enough for two people to pass with luggage. You can see that there are people sitting in chairs on the opposite side of them, and I am sitting along a barrier on the other side. Next to the lady on the left is a phone booth. They just planted themselves in the middle to wait for their train announcment. In the meantime, people are trying to get around them the whole time. People with luggage are squishing through and the lady keeps getting annoyed that people are nudging her as their luggage slightly makes it through the opening on either side of her. You'd think at some point it would click and they'd think, "Oh wow, I'm in the middle of everything totally oblivious to the fact that I'm not the center of the universe and this walkway was not created for me to wait in." Nope, stood there getting jostled and dirty looks from the rest of the travelers until their train was posted. I know I shouldn't be annoyed, and maybe they are first time travelers, but I think it is more about consideration for other people. Sheesh.

Thoughts on Paris

I left for Paris on the 4:30 train on Friday afternoon. The train was of course packed and when we got into Gare de Lyon there was mayhem. Easter weekend in Paris. Here are some thoughts:
- It rained the whole time. Except for a 2 hour window on Saturday when we went to the Eiffel Tower.
- The city is not quite in Spring mode. It was a little too early to visit as the gardens are not in bloom yet, but when I go back at the end of the month they are going to be spectacular.
- I liked the Rodin museum the most. Probably because the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre were absolutely packed. Annoyingly packed. With hugely enormous lines that were not adding to my experience in the least. I actually really detested the lines and it majorly hindered my enjoyment of the places. Here's an example of a line at the Louvre. It was free on the first Sunday of the month. So that contributed I'm sure. The Rodin though was much smaller and part of it was outside. I thought it was the perfect size for a small museum trip and had some really really cool works.
- The whole city was packed and it really made me not enjoy the trip as much. I need a better mindset next time, so I am going to prepare myself.
- The food was truly amazing. Sadly the people I was traveling with had a bad main course on Saturday, but mine was spectacular. I first had Ratatouille in honor of my brother Then I had sea scallops which is one of my favorite meals that I haven't had since I came to France. Then I had this for dessert.
Look at that strawberry goodness. The thing on the left was lemon and strawberry sorbet in a lemon. The thing on the right is a little tart type thing with graham cracker crust on the bottom and creme on the top. The little cookies on the top were soooo yummy as well.
- Of course I spent way too much money on one weekend, but it is Paris, and I figured, why not?
- The Eiffel Tower was really neat, we tried to stay until the lights came on at night, but there was more rain coming in so we didn't.
- There are tons of Americans in Paris. I heard more American English than I have heard in a long time. Strange because I heard way less French.
- There are tons of museums in Paris. When we looked at the guide book it was the major sites and then museums. At some point museums become very similar and having seen the same type of art for more than 3 hours is not condusive to keeping me involved and energized.
All in all a good short weekend in Paris. I came back on a 2pm train on Sunday, and made it to Easter Sunday mass. Then made myself a little dinner and the Easter Bunny brought me a gift (as in brought, I mean, I bought it at the patisserie and brought it home). Looks yummy huh? It was.

Jinxed

Last week at some point I saw someone limping around on crutches. The crutches here aren't like the ones at home that go up under your arms, these are ones that you just use your hands with. I guess they are called forearm crutches. They look a little more painful to use to me, but thankfully I have no personal experience. I made a comment to someone though that it would really suck to hurt yourself here because there is really no way to get around walking. We don't have a car, and there really would be no way to get anywhere with one anyway. Well I ran on Tuesday a little more than I have been lately and woke up Wednesday morning hardly able to put pressure on my left foot. It was something under the ankle bone. I had fine mobility in my ankle joint, it felt like under the bone was bruised and swollen. With no choice, I hobbled around all week and then remembered I was going to Paris for the weekend. Bollocks. I hobbled 6 miles around Paris on Saturday and wanted my foot to just fall off and be done with it. The problem with it was no only that my ankle hurt, but walking funny to try and take pressure off of my ankle made the rest of the muscles in the leg not very happy either. Apparently the whole jinx for mentioning the crutches actually occurred. Thankfully it is starting to feel better and I am hoping it is 100% by the time I go on vacation next week.

Small Update: I did not at any point need crutches. Didn't mean to scare you. Just thought I would clarify.

Jeu d'entreprise

Last week we spent the entire week playing a simulated game online. We had to make groups of 5 students and then the groups were put into groups of 8 teams. Well I got lucky and someone asked me and my roommate to be on a team. So I spent the whole week essentially doing nothing because I didn't really get what we were doing. I set it in English, but it was all financial and stuff, so I really didn't take the time to figure it out. It is hard to communicate in the first place, but it is even more difficult when trying to propose things that I don't really think are right. Anyway, the entire week I went to every session and just kind of lended my moral support. Well it came to the end of the week and our team ended up winning not only in our subset of groups, but the whole thing! Really the two people on my team ended up winning it for us, but we had to go down in front of the entire third year and accept diplomas and gifts. I felt a little guilty, but sometimes it is about being with the right people at the right time.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Languages

This post has been marinating for some time and I think it might be lengthy so, be prepared. I'm not exactly sure how it is going to go, but...here we go.
Yesterday we went to a Brazilian lunch with a bunch of the international students. At the table were 3 Americans, 3 Brazilians, 3 Finnish, 2 Germans, 2 people who have lived in various countries in their lives. I have to say, that as someone who can only speak one language fluently and can kind of speak another, Americans are WAY behind with respect to language abilities. (While I am no expert, I feel pretty comfortable saying Americans in general, sure there are many out there who can speak other languages, but in general, I think we're behind) Now I understand that these international students are probably only here because they have had extensive training in other languages, but it is still amazing to meet people who can literally go from speaking English fantastically to busting out Portuguese with the waiter and then speaking to the other person of their nationality at the table in their home language. There is one student who literally is fluent in German, English, Portuguese and French and can speak and understand Spanish, some Italian and is working on anything else that might come up. Of course languages are similar, so once you get one in the group, you can muddle through the others, but whoa.
My roommate asked one of the girls at the table, who can speak French, German, Swedish and a little bit of Dutch, what language she thinks in. She said she thinks in pictures. Interesting huh? I thought about it and I think in pictures a lot too, but not always.
I will have to say though, while I am not able to speak French that much, when I do start speaking it, I really do start thinking in it. Then I sometimes default to it and have to remind my self that some of the students don't speak French, so I need to speak English. It is a weird feeling having to pick which language to speak.
This of course got me thinking about the educational system for teaching languages in the States. I think I have decided that we can't effectively learn language in the states for many reasons. The major one being of course the mindset that everyone else in the world is learning English, so us learning other languages isn't vital to our survival. Other students need to learn English to compete in the world, but us? We get off easy because everyone is learning our language.
We also have the problem that we get to pick from the language we learn, but all of our friends are learning other languages. Sure I can take 6 years of French, but if my friends take Spanish and German, I can't really practice with them now can I? And, in all my years of French education at home, I was immersed in it in class, but after that, if I didn't look for it, it wasn't in my face to see. Makes the external stuff that isn't taught in class harder to learn. I don't know what the solution is really for kids from the states learning foreign languages. I don't think it will ever be as stressed as it is here, and I know that the general population of the States will not be hiring private tutors for their kids to go to each day to learn another language like many of the students here do to learn English. Kind of sad really that we are so limited, but maybe in 50 years everyone will speak the same language anyway, who knows.
I'm still jealous when I'm at dinner with people and they can bust out a language that no one else at the table can speak to talk to their friend from home. They have the ability to tell secrets and talk about people without them knowing. Americans have to get creative when we talk to eachother and we don't want other people to notice. That's when we bust out the slang and Americanisms. Ha. So take that.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Ferme la bouche!

The phrase above means "shut your mouth" and I so wish I could go outside each and every morning and find the dumb animal (I'm not sure if it is a bird) that makes the most annoying sound ever every morning of my existence. I can't explain it here obviously because I can't do the sound effects for you, but I'm convinced it might be an owl. Here's the rough estimate of how I would write the sound in words. Wooo - Wooo- Wooooooooo and not like WOO! fun, like wooo more like you are saying ahhhh but wooo. This post is just funny to write because there is no way for you to experience with me the annoyingness of this.... thing. I'm glad I am amused trying to describe it to you, but I'm definitely not when I'm in bed trying to sleep. The nice sounding birds outside are ok. I don't mind, I can sleep through them, this....thing though? SHUT IT ALREADY!!! :-)

Lipdub

Everytime I think I run out of blog topics something random happens. Take yesterday for example. I was sitting in a room in the library in the morning when I got a text from a French friend that said "Can you help me at 6:30 at school with something really fun?" I replied, "well sure, pourquoi pas?" I show up at 6:30 and of course no one is really there. So I wait until 6:50 when we are finally ready to do whatever it is that we are going to do. There are lots of students there dressed funny with crazy wigs and costumes and umbrellas and such. I'm thinking, what the heck? Then a girl starts handing out lyrics to a song and tells me which line I am going to sing. WHAT?!?! Well apparently there is a lip synching competition among schools or something so we were making a video for that. Quite random huh? It was fun, but I was starving hungry and you know how I am when I'm hungry, so I wasn't entirely in the mood, but I did it anyway and looked like I was having a great time. I don't know how else to describe it, so I am just going to post a link. This is not our group, but it is the song we sang (thank god not really) and danced to. If I ever see the real finished video, I will, of course, pass it along.
http://techno.branchez-vous.com/actualite/2009/09/lip_dub_uqam_etudiants_communi.html

April Fool's Day!

I can't believe it is April. I mean sure it feels like it could be April, as I feel like I have been living here for quite some time, but really, time sure does fly by. Things are starting to get a little crazy with school as most of the semester is based around year-end projects or papers and then of course there is the looming Grand Orale. Basically there are three subjects picked from a list of 327 potential subjects. You pick one and get one hour to prepare a 15 minute presentation in front of a panel. Then they have 15 minutes to ask you questions. You pass? You graduate. You don't? I don't want to think about it. Thankfully I get to do mine in English. I'm not thinking it will be that hard, but something that takes a little preparation.
There is also the internship search. I haven't exactly been burning up the internet lines with applications so I'm not surprised I haven't heard anything yet (ha). I have my resume and cover letters finished so the goal for April is to find an internship so I can have fun in May traveling and exploring France. I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, if you know anyone working in Western Europe, I'm their gal!
Mother Nature isn't helping us out with the weather here really either. It got semi-cold again and I had to bust out the winter coat again. Ugh. Thankfully it is sunny and seems warmer and I hear it is coming since at home it was 82 the other day. We'll see what happens.
Finally, no one here has any idea what April Fool's Day is, which just makes things very enticing for pranks and jokes. The problem is that sometimes our idea of funny doesn't coincide with theirs. So I need good, harmless ideas for an April Fool's gag. Hmmm....