merry christmas. December 25, 2008

so i’ve been in paris for the last four days, and it’s been pretty awesome. i’ve spent most of the days wandering around by myself while kaytee has been working, doing a mix of planned adventures and aimless wandering. there has actually been some sun – shocking!

i’ve posted most of the pictures so far on flickr, so peep those to your right. i’m too lazy to link any of them here. and why so lazy, you ask? because i ate christmas “dinner” france style, ending almost 3 hours ago, and i still am too full to move.

christmas dinner was had chez kaytee’s uncle’s and aunt’s, who were very nice. and since they don’t speak garbled ch’ti french, i could actually get the gist of the conversations. for the first round, we had champagne, pistachios, potato chips, cherry tomatos, little sausages and caviar (obviously i did not eat the last two items). then they had some smoked salmon while i ate avocados with vinaigrette and bread. i was already about to explode at this point, but then came the main course (for them, chicken) and for me, a soja sun patty with potatoes, and plenty of bread bien sûr. THEN came the cheeses. which were several weeks past their “use-by” date, but apparently in france, this means nothing. one of the cheeses was literally a liquid on the inside, and was also very strong. all the cheeses were enjoyable but not ones i would necessarily choose to eat on my own.

AND THEN CAME the 5th course, dessert. a chocolate cake with english pudding. it was once again delicious. we just sat around talking afterwards, and then her aunt dropped us off at the metro. i’m surprisingly not longing for michigan right now (where all my family is) but we have planned a skype rendez-vous at 3pm michigan time.

being in paris has really thrown a wrench in my future life plans, but alas, that is a post for another day.

merry christmas yall.

in sickness… December 20, 2008

finally, after almost a month, i think i am finally free of the sickness that had been ravaging my body since before rotterdam. this celebration was slightly short lived, however, when on monday night i missed the last step on the staircase and proceeded to sprain my ankle. sometimes i am an idiot.

and the other kind of sickness has finally hit me: homesickness. i audio-chatted with jr & punchy yesterday when i woke up & that was the first time i had heard a friend’s voice in the last 3.5 months. the whole day i was nothing but ridiculously homesick. but, it was bound to happen eventually.

paris is where i am for christmas, new years, and all the other days in between. i could think of worse places to end up, and worse people to hang out with (kaytee and drew), but i still wish i could be home a lil bit.

merry christmas.

prostitutes and dreams. December 15, 2008

most of the time my dreams are very ordinary, so ordinary that sometimes i can’t remember if i dreamt something or if it actually happened. but the rest of the time, my dreams are very bizarre. a common theme involves my teeth either falling out, crumbling while i’m talking, or turning to dust. this apparently reflects some sort of self-anxiety, but i think i just worry about my teeth so much in “awake” life that it carries over. i also dream about spiders a lot, which is a) disgusting and b) very nonsensical because i hate spiders with all of my little heart.

last night i dreamt that i was a prostitute. i moved into a room in a house that was full of whores. i thought that this would be a really good way of earning extra money while i was here, until i found out that the “pimp” was only going to let me work for 20 euros in the beginning to see if i was worth it, and that was before his cut. i started to panic and started sleeping in my room at the foyer while trying to figure out if i could actually sell myself. i would come back to the whore house and the “pimp” would tell me that i need to put up my price list or leave, and that he thought i was there to take advantage of the free tea. eventually i decided that it wasn’t the job for me and i moved out.

i woke up utterly baffled. i can’t say that i’ve recently thought about becoming a prostitute, nor have i thought about prostitutes in general, so i have no clue what made this come about. a quick google search about dreams and prostitutes yielded inapplicable results, so i’m at a loss….

la fête des lumières. December 13, 2008

last weekend i went to lyon (france) for la fête des lumières. i started off the weekend by having a heart attack because i am an idiot and bought my ticket for the wrong day. no one noticed though, so all was well. lyon is about 3 hours away, but since the TGV goes 9374mph it puts me to sleep instantly. i woke up to actual SUN and started my day. i went to a bunch of different cathedrals and then to the musée des beaux-arts. i took approximately 15000 photos of the basillica notre dame, because it was the ugliest thing i’ve ever seen:

i really have learned to appreciate wandering around and exploring places on my own. later that evening i met up with my host for the weekend. i’ve been using couchsurfing for traveling and it’s turned out really well. my host was from brazil and we had good times. the big attraction for the weekend was of course la fête des lumières. a mere 4 million visitors joined us over the weekend. at certain points i could not walk because the streets were so full. amazing. unfortunately i’m an idiot and didn’t charge my camera, so i just have photos from friday night.

etc. there are many more pictures on my flickr….i took some videos that i will one day figure out how to post.
as usual i fell even more in love with france. saturday was spent doing most of the same, and sunday we went to the market by the rhône before i headed to paris. after traveling too much and being outside too much, the cold that i’ve had off and on the last few weeks yet again reared its ugly head and by the end of dinner with kaytee and some friends, i felt like i was going to die.

i only had a few hours in paris before going home, so i just decided to go to some of the shops i wanted to see. i don’t know when i became obsessed with things i will never afford to be able to buy, but sadly, it’s happened. on the way to the metro from kaytee’s, there is a puppy store. i found my new loves.

LOOK AT THE EARS ON THIS FRENCHIE.

i will be spending just under 2 weeks in paris over christmas and new years. this will be good.

where does the time go? December 3, 2008

so, it’s looking like i’ll never find the time to write about rotterdam but maybe eventually i’ll write a short recap. i work all day tomorrow and leave at 5:30am for lyon on friday, so all i can leave you with is this short post: I LOVE DOCTOR FAMILY #2. i tutor for 2 families, of which 3/4 parents are doctors, and doctor family #2 always invites me to hang out/stay for dinner after. they are amazing and are probably the only reason my french will ever get any better (tonight i managed to have a slight philosophical discussion – my french still sucks, but at least they can understand what i’m trying to say). anyway, tonight we had a simple, but fucking DELICIOUS dinner. you boil some potatoes and then they have these amazing appliances for melting cheese. i don’t know what they’re called, but here’s a photo. you basically just put the cheese in there, let it get all bubbly and hot, then pour it over your potatoes. you add some pickles (and meat if you please) and then you have it.

so simple, so good.