les hommes français. November 27, 2008

today, i was walking around in euralille (a modern mall kind of thing) and a guy said “excusez-moi.” in general, i ignore any random men/boys who talk to me because they either want a) my money or b) my phone number, neither of which i’m willing to part with. this guy decided to show how he was worth my time by KICKING ME. that’s right, he kicked my foot while i walked by and almost tripped me! this tactic is about as successful as the drive-by honking – am i supposed to just stop walking, turn around, and chase after you? especially when i’m walking home at 3am? am i supposed to be impressed with your dirty, broken down vehicle and your “sexy” looks?

in any case, i continued walking towards my destination while yelling at the man “i don’t speak french” but since it was spoken in french, and i dropped the “ne” that is common to do in spoken language, it’s fairly obvious that i do. sometimes i’m not good at faking being a foreigner (although i do like to spend time coming up with the worst possible english-ized pronuncations of certain french phrases because i am a nerd who gets bored on the metro).

and that leads me to right now, where i say au revoir. it is my birthday in 26 minutes and i will be celebrating said birthday by going to rotterdam in a car with 4 other people i’ve never met before, and by staying with a girl i’ve never met before (who is picking me up on a scooter? terrified.) and doing who knows what all weekend. everyone always bugged me at home (by everyone read: primarily jake and jason) that i never did anything or tried anything new or blah blah. so here i am, out there and trying to be adventurous…

(i will also not be admitting publicly how many times i listened to the new britney spears today.)

buh. November 25, 2008

i’ve started doing this thing where i’ll set my phone alarm for a 20 minute nap even if i have nothing to wake up for since everyone always says short naps are better, but then i will hit snooze on my phone (where the alarm goes off every 5 minutes) for over an HOUR. i somehow manage to fall back “asleep” every 5 minutes. this has to be the worst possible way to sleep ever, yet i find myself doing it. once i finally decided to wake up, i pretty much feel like i’m on the verge of vomiting.
i think it’s time to stop napping (but oh how i love a good nap…).

it’s snowing…plus nachos. November 23, 2008

this is the view outside of my window right now:

i’ve been quite surprised it’s snowed the last two days. i asked one of the families i tutor for how often it snows when i first arrived, and they said once every couple of years. it feels very minnesota-like right now and i can’t lie, the snow is making me a little bit homesick.

on friday night, mackenzie came in from dunkerque and we met up with jeremie to have nacho night. we found cheddar cheese, made our own salsa and guacamole, made some rice, and we were all set. we also bought some corona (but for 9.50 euros, that will never happen again). our finished products:

and in closing, here’s my favorite song of the week. at first it’s just kind of weird, but it reeeally grows on you. it comes “highly rec-d.”
hot chip – touch too much (fake blood remix)

this is what’s on my brain. November 19, 2008

i twittered (tweeted?) about this before i left minnesota, but reposting for my french-speaking friends.

“To answer the question I’m always asked [voyons réfléchissons] No I do not feel that there is a space between the two tongues that talk in me [oui peut-être un tout petit espace] On the contrary [plus ou moins si on veut] For me the one and the other seem to overlap [et même coucher ensemble] To want to merge [oui se mettre l'une dans l'autre] To want to come together [jouir ensemble] To want to embrace one another [tendrement] To want to mesh one into the other [n'être qu'une] Or if you prefer [ça m'est égal] They want to spoil and corrupt each other [autant que possible] I do not feel as some other bilingualists have affirmed that one tongue is vertical in me the other horizontal [pas du tout] If anything my tongues seem to be standing or lying always in the same direction [toujours penchées l'une vers l'autre] Sometimes vertically [de haut en bas] Other times horizontally [d'un côté à l'autre] Depending on their moods or their desires [elles sont très passionnées vous savez] Though these two tongues in me occasionally compete with one another in some vague region of my brain [normalement dans la partie supérieure de mon cerveau] More often they play with one another [des jeux très étranges] Especially when I am not looking [quand je dors] I believe that my two tongues love each other [cela ne m'étonnerait pas] And I have on occasion caught them having intercourse behind my back [je les ai vues une fois par hasard] but I cannot tell which is feminine and which is masculine [personnellement on s'en fout] Perhaps they are both androgynous [c'est très possible]“

by raymond federmanvia via language hat.

top artists, week ending 16/11 November 16, 2008

#catmix November 15, 2008

one of my roommates from home, jason, works at a design/interactive studio who is hosting a mixer there tonight – and making it an interactive experience with video feeds, chat, twitter feed, and photobooth! watching it is like where’s waldo for my friends in attendance.

i heard evan laughing and it instantly made me homesick. i think i need to try to call people more often because i miss hearing them laugh.

chocolates… November 11, 2008

one time about 4 years ago, i was staying with kaytee in winnipeg and was alone with her mom while kaytee went to work. kaytee’s mom is very french and at the time i hadn’t spoke any french in 4 years so i was quite rusty. she asked me if i wanted a chocolate, so i said HELL YEAH! (or “sure, thank you so much”, they’re basically interchangable). i pop the delicious sweet goodness in my mouth to find that…

it’s filled with alcohol.

i thought it was funny because i was straight-edge at the time, but was also really confused because who thinks that alcohol and chocolate taste good together? well my friends…the answer is the french.

at the grocery store yesterday, these little suckers caught my eye with their cute play on words “mon chéri” and when i get home, i eat one and what do you know… there’s the cherry inside, basking in a pile of alcohol. disgusting. i tried to enjoy it, i even tried to eat a second one. but nope. not havin’ it.

i guess i will have to stick with delicious pastries and refrain from candy.

recent obsessions. November 8, 2008

i tend to become obsessed with random things, and here are my recent obsessions since arriving in france:

1. electric kettles. i used to drink tea when i worked at comcast all the time because the hot water dispenser on the coffee machine was so convenient. i’ve rarely drank it since because i can’t be bothered to a) buy a kettle or b) wait for water to boil (and yes, i realize i can use a microwave, for some reason i generally forget this). everyone has electric kettles and i can yet again drink my fruit tea on a whim. it also is quite handy for obsession 2.
2. curry instant noodles. i have eaten them at least once a day since jeremie fed me them at his house. they also cost less than a euro.
3. white out. in france, you do NOT scribble anything out and pencils do not exist. even 6 year old children write with fancy fountain pens and if a mistake is made, you must white it out. considering i am already OCD about pens and writing in general, this is not helping me.
4. pain au chocolat. a big fluffy-ish croissant with random chocolate bits. i’m not a big chocolate person, but cafe muffin near the h&m in vieux lille is the owner of my heart. i could survive on only these, but would probably end up very fat.
5. public transportation. taking the metro is heavenly. constantly being smushed next to a bunch of strangers is NOT so heavenly, but i’m really going to miss being able to take the metro everywhere when i get home.
6. eisley. casey & evan have liked them tons forever and i don’t know why i never gave them more of a chance.
7. kriek beer. this is a type of belgium beer that is brewed with sour cherries. it is the most delicious beverage i’ve ever had. i must figure out where to get this in the states when i get home. it’s very much a “girl” drink and if you like actual beer, chances are you might hate this.
8. a-z notebooks. these are perfect for organizing my GRE vocabulary and notes for the literature subject test. france doesn’t know what regular lined paper looks like for some reason so everything is some variant of graph paper.

relief. November 5, 2008

i teared up this morning while i was reading my twitter feed at 5:30am walking to catch the metro to jeremie’s, where our election results breakfast was waiting for us. i refrained from reading anything on the computer before i left, but i caved in to twitter. as soon as i got home this afternoon, i watched obama’s acceptance speech and found myself crying through almost the entire thing. i don’t remember a time where i’ve cried because i’ve been so HAPPY.

i was surprised that i had such a physical reaction because comparatively speaking, this election has been the one i’ve been least invested in, and i’ve never cried over politics before (although i cry all the time, so this isn’t saying much). after taking a ridiculous amount of summer classes and starting my last year of college, i was too exhausted and consumed with school to keep up with politics (i know, a lame excuse). when it was time for the primaries, i trusted punchy when he said i should vote for obama because i couldn’t decide between obama or clinton. i didn’t attend any rallies or meetings or do any of the things i did in 2004 to “get out there” and do my part, and i’ve spent the last two months watching the election from across the ocean. i mailed in a ballot that felt like it wasn’t going to count (but thanks to the 600 vote difference between coleman & franken in minnesota, the absentee ballots might actually make a diffence).

i wish the joy i feel wasn’t overshadowed by my disappointment in the voters of all the states (looking especially at you, california) who made the disgusting choice to vote for discrimination rather than EQUALITY for everyone. it’s almost 2009 and i can’t believe this shit can still fly. i guess america hasn’t taken the training wheels all the way off yet.

a long night. November 4, 2008

france is 6 hours ahead of eastern time, so we have a long wait to find out the results. i’m honestly afraid to wake up tomorrow. the first time i voted was in 2000 and we all remember what a mess that was. i had such hope that 2004 was going to be different (even if i wasn’t personally that fond of ANY of the candidates – anything had to be better than another four years of bush). i am 100% disgusted with america and all i can do is hope that obama is the change we are all craving.

if this man isn’t elected president, i’m not coming home*.

*by not coming home, i mean that i wish i could stay in france to protest against the ridiculousness of america & its voters, but i’m not too keen on the idea of being an illegal immigrant in france either.