LONDON!! January 25, 2009

so in 5 glorious days i will be returning to one of my favorite cities in the world, london, to see some friends from “home” (only 1 of them is actually from minneapolis) and two of my favorite friends from here are joining us. this weekend marks the 5 month anniversary of my time in france, and also an important milestone: the half-way point. since i’ve been to london before i plan on just tagging along with what christine and keri want to do, but hopefully that will include hitting up the tate since that’s really the only thing i didn’t get to see before. on saturday night sarah & i are going to go see new young pony club which should be a catchy pop filled fun night. the pound is still basically 1-1 with the euro which is AWESOME. and london has things like whole foods, so i can buy a bunch of real vegetarian food to bring back with me.

i’ve had a pretty rough week, which included almost going to the hospital because i was so sick, and of course, the ever elusive “personal drama,” so this weekend in london will be all the more refreshing. i still haven’t figured out where i’ll be traveling to the rest of my time here. it’s looking like norway will be a go sometime in may (to avoid any encounter with a real winter), and there will be wandering around with cbk and punchy in april of course, but the rest, i need to figure out. i’m kind of thinking about trying to find another job here, which will probably be impossible, but if i could find something to save up extra money between now and april, my traveling situation the last 3 months would be much better….but we’ll see.

i also gave up trying to figure out word press so i just picked a theme with colors i liked, although it seems to capitalize letters in the subject on it’s own, but oh well.

a new year and new things… January 19, 2009

(i’m trying to make this not look like crap, so if it looks weird, ignore for now please.)

i discovered today that wordpress can import LJ entries. not that i necessarily want to re-read all of the garbage that i wrote there for oh, like 7 years, but an interesting idea anyway.

so, i’ve started running. i’ve tried to start running probably no less than 10 times in the last few years, but this time i’ve managed to stick with it beyond the initial “i can’t run a block, this is going to fail” stage. on thursday i ran 5 miles! and it’s kind of bizarre because i used to run like a crazy woman as a midfielder in soccer, but i never experienced any sort of “runner’s high” even when i would run outside of soccer games and practices. but i totally got “in the zone” on thursday during the last 3 miles and it was pretty sweet.

thanks to les soldes (big sales in france for the whole month of january), i found a sweet pair of running shoes that takes the nike+ sensor (sends data about your running to your ipod) and now that device is basically my best friend. i’m hoping i can actually stick with it this time, because being in shape is much better than not being in shape (i’ll be able to ride my bike without dying when i get home) and i’ve also lost a lot of weight here that i would prefer not to gain back. i just felt very meh about myself the last few years while i did nothing about it because i was always “too busy with school,” but now i’m starting to feel much better and that is very very good.

commercial free. January 6, 2009

on public television in france (which is NOT the same as public television in the states – ie they have actual quality programing, or at least, i think they do, since i don’t have a tv), all advertising is now banned between the hours of 8pm and 6am, and it will be phased out entirely by 2011.

while no commercials is certainly nice for viewers like me who are rarely inspired or amused by them, i wonder what kind of impact this will have on the non-public channels. since i don’t have a TV here it’s hard for me to write much about this, but i wonder if advertisers will be more likely to funnel money into the non-public channels, which would allow those channels to produce better quality programming…and steal viewers away from public tv? or i wonder if there will be more instances of product placement in public tv programs than before (but since the only tv i’ve watched while here was a french canadian tv show that was easily 5 years old, i don’t know if that’s a common practice here or not).

so essentially i find this all very interesting, but since i have no tv, will probably not get to see how it plays out. but you can bet on hell freezing over before something like that would ever fly in the states. well, it might not “fly” so well here either – many unions are planning a strike to demonstrate their disapproval of the broadcasting reform bill on wednesday when it comes back up for debate.

and speaking of strikes, another american living abroad in france wrote an all too accurate summary of what happens when people in france strike: “Pôle Emploi, which is replacing ANPE & ASSEDIC, is already beginning its first days with a strike even though the organization doesn’t technically become effective until Thursday.

The employees of the organization that is designed to help you find work refuse to work so that you cannot find work because they are upset about their own work.

This is similar to the SNCF’s strikes where you cannot get to work because the employees are upset about their own work, so you have to miss work which could lead to the loss of your work.

And in the end, no one actually works.”

2008… January 4, 2009

i started 2008 playing board games at the hou$e of cred and ended 2008 at a house party in versailles, france. i also managed to do sweet things like not hate my job for an entire year, finish college, get accepted and funded to MA programs, make new friends, have two sweet parties, and, obviously, move to france.

i have no energy to write anything lately, but here’s a list of some sort loosely based on 2008…

favorite movie: let the right one in.
favorite song: if we go by play count…out there on the ice – cut copy.
favorite comfort music: eisley & sigur ros’ ( ).
favorite currency: euros.
favorite celebrity crush: paul rudd.
favorite number of postcards sitting on my desk since september waiting to be mailed: approx 30.
favorite city in france: lyon.
favorite phil collins song: something happened on the way to heaven.
favorite person to finally turn 21: nicole fjerstad.
favorite DJs: punchy & jr.
favorite food: pain au chocolats.
favorite color: purple.
favorite accomplishment not actually accomplished: NaNoWriMo.
favorite party: american houseparty.
favorite f. scott fizgerald novel i should have read a long time ago: tender is the night.
favorite word in spanish: bigote.

i got nothin’ here folks…