Paris

Spring break!

The Meghan, 7 Comments

French Word(s) of the Day: vacances de printemps (veh-cawn-sah de prown-tom)- spring break

I’m finally done with my 8 thousand projects.  Or at least, for the next two weeks I’m done.  Classes are out of session!  Spring break!  Vacation! Exclamation points!

I think my neighbor is on spring break too, because her alarm didn’t go off until 8:30 this morning.  However, not everyone gets spring break this week.  One of the other residents decided that they were jealous of us spring breakers, and so s/he blasted Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” in the middle of the courtyard at 7 am.  I would have yelled at s/him, but judging by how loudly s/he listens to his/her music, s/he’s deaf and wouldn’t have heard me.

Or s/he soon will be deaf.

Everyone in the program has gone southwest for the break, so there are a scant few of us left.  As the scant few are the ones I like (aka the only other girl over 21, Brittney), this hasn’t been a problem.  I don’t know what happens between the ages of 20 to 23, but it must be significant for building maturity levels…

I did a LOT of walking this weekend.  Arnaud and I walked around Paris for 3 hours (unintentionally… we were looking for friends, but this is France so they were over an hour late).  We gave up on them and got crepes instead, because Nutella fixes everything.

On the way back, I found my pretty ballet shoe store by Opera Garnier.  It always has pretty displays, and this time was no exception.

On Sunday, Brittney and I went to see the goats.  There’s a tiny little park in Bois de Boulogne (the French version of Central Park) that has farm life.  Brittney said this is so Parisian children get to see actual animals other than pigeons or rats.

For serious, that’s all Paris has: rats and rats with wings.  Every French person who has ever visited me gets WAY too excited about squirrels.  They’ve all stopped and taken tons of photos of them.  If you’ve ever seen Up!, it’s exactly like this:

There weren’t any squirrels at the park, but there was Donald Trump in duck form.

There was also the biggest donkey I’ve ever seen in my life.  If donkeys ever form a basketball team, they need to draft this guy:

Note the real sized donkey under him.  I took this for a size comparison.  Also, French children are the only ones allowed to wear baseball hats, and only then when they’re visiting barn animals.  Otherwise, they must be impeccably clad.

Of course, this exhibit was created by a Parisian.  I assume that because they had this in the gardening section:

Either France is a hundred years behind the US in gardening techniques, or that’s a bit outdated.  I can just imagine a French farmer seeing this and laughing, “Ha ha!  We still use horse-driven plows too!  You Parisians could not SURVIVE without us.”  (Different regions in France aren’t so fond of each other.)

This was at the end of the park, but Brittney and I just had to take pictures of it:

It’s reaaaaaaaal purty, ain’t it?

I’m going to England next week for the Royal Wedding.  My friend, Vanessa, has charged me with the task of finding her a husband.  I think I’m going to try for Prince Harry, but she’s willing to go slumming for a commoner.  Her choice.

She wants him to look like the beautiful Swiss guard I met at a pub when I was studying in Ireland.  I don’t think they make ’em like this in England, but here’s a picture for reference (this is all just an excuse to give some eye candy… Duck-ald Trump and the donkey are nice, but they’re not quite as visually pleasing):

Maybe we should invite him to England for the Royal Wedding?  I won’t even make him wear his uniform.  (I don’t think he got to keep it, but he did get to keep his sword.  Swords are far more important.)

I’ll let you know if I find Vanessa her man.  And I’ll give you pictures if he looks like that. ^

Oh, I almost forgot!  This is for my Aunt Joan because she sent me a fabulous box of chocolates!

The star next to it is because I mess up sometimes when I draw stars and don’t have the heart to erase them.  So, it’s waving to everyone.

Pain au chocolat count: 75

Meghan Works in France

The Meghan, 1 Comment

French Word(s) of the Day: Je suis toujours en vie (juh swee too-jur on vee)- I’m still alive

It’s been so long that I’m sure some of you are convinced that I went back into the hospital/ have been kidnapped and sold into slavery.  Fear not!  Je suis toujours en vie.

My neck finally decided to start working again on Friday, which was good.  My doctor told me that stress was making my lupus act up and that I should be “all good” now.

It was quite the event-filled weekend.  My friend MJ, Théo and Théo’s dad all had birthday parties this weekend, so my days were spent recovering.  They were mostly in French, and I found that I now understand people when they speak in French.  I no longer have the deer-in-headlights look.  Sometimes, I can even respond properly.  Successsssss.

I started my internship today!  I wrote an article that can be found here (though will probably not interest any of you… look at it solely for the byline): http://www.editorsweblog.org/newsrooms_and_journalism/2011/03/bbloomberg_lpb_the_success_story_that_ke.php

In my excitement, I forgot to properly cite my sources, so anything that says “according to” has been added in by my editor.  Oops.

Everyone was really nice.  My boss took us all for lunch at a cute cafe to welcome me to the group.  Everyone speaks English, but we do sometimes translate French articles/ have to communicate with the French IT guy.  I was misinformed about the French levels.  I’m not sure how good everyone’s French is, but I do know that many of them at least can understand it.

My neighbor and I had to have a talk a week ago when she decided to turn on her television at one in the morning.  She answered her door naked (why?!) and stood behind the door the entire time glaring at me.  I wanted to say, “Look, you’re the one who decided NOT to put on a towel or something before answering the door.”  Instead, I just ignored it and continued to talk to her as if she were fully clothed.

She unwillingly agreed to wear headphones if she turns on the tv after midnight.  This really means that she has just lowered the volume slightly.  As I can now sleep, I don’t care.

I’ve also started classes.  The infamous Madame Dubois is baaaaaaaack.  She seemed excited to see me, and there ARE other Americans in the class, so I’m hoping I won’t be attacked this semester on behalf of my country.  You all are hard to defend sometimes.

I’m off to analyze some poems in French.  A student’s work is never done.

Pain au chocolat count: 58

Laundry

The Meghan, 3 Comments

French Word of the Day: pourquoi (pour- kwa)- why

I think everyone should know that “sparkly hearts” and “sparkly hearts pretty” are the top searches for my blog in the past few days.  Ça me plaît beaucoup.

Today I finished my class at L’Etoile (the star), the school I’ve been attending for the past four weeks.  My real classes start this next week, as does my internship.

I’m a bit worriedone of my classes because one of my grammar teachers- Madame DuBois- was my Business French teacher… the one who liked to assign entire workbooks for homework.  She’s also not so fond of Americans.  She corrected my grammar 8 times more than the other people in the class, and I’m pretty sure it’s not because I was 8 times worse than everyone else (maybe just 7 times worse).  It wasn’t even a grammar class!  I expect this time will be worse.  And there will be more accusations about how Americans have destroyed the Earth with their “McDonald’s”.

God, I hope there’s another American in the class to diffuse the anger.

My internship, however, should be lovely.  English is my favorite language, mostly because I can actually speak it without someone correcting my pronunciation.

To prepare for the craziness that will be next week, I’m doing my laundry now.  (On a Friday evening… I’m such a rock star.)  As you are all well aware of, French washing machines do not like me.  I somehow have managed to keep all my clothes their original color, but I highly suspect that I broke one of the machines.  And by highly suspect, I mean it keeps flashing “Stop!!!!” in French and won’t let me put any clothes in it.

How did it break?  I don’t know.  I followed the instructions!  I only filled it up halfway with clothes.  It was on the proper settings…  I think it knows I’m American.  Madame DuBois must have told it.  Or maybe I’ve been speaking to it in English and it only understands French?  The button says “Start” in English.  I assumed it was a bilingual machine.

I’m getting tired of needing perfect change to do laundry.  The next place I move is going to have a washing machine that doesn’t speak French or require special coins or turn my clothes blue.

*EDIT*: I just figured out that the machine is going on strike.  It’s the only explanation.  It really IS a French machine…

Pain au chocolat: 55 (I bought one today to make change for the laundry)

Bon Saint Valentine!

The Meghan, 6 Comments

French Word of the Day: amour (ah more)- love- although I assume you all knew that

I’m a day late, but I hope that you all had better things to do on Valentine’s Day than check my blog and wonder why I hadn’t updated.

I couldn’t find glitter, otherwise I would have send you all sparkly postcards.  Apparently the French don’t do the Valentine’s Day card thing… just a ton of flowers.  There are always men walking around throughout the city trying to get you to buy flowers, but they triple their already impressive numbers for the day of amour.  Théo and I saw a vendor yesterday and automatically did our “AHHHHH NO FLOWERS!” duck away from him.  After we passed him, Théo said, “Oh right, I probably could have gotten you one today… I’m just so used to avoiding them that it’s a reflex.”

I told Théo not to get me anything for Valentine’s Day because I’m not that big a fan of Valentine’s Day gifts unless they contain glitter.  This could also be because I have a long and glorious tradition of being sick on Valentine’s Day and mentally associate it with viruses.

I didn’t have a horrible cold or the flu for this one!  Although I did have a doctor’s appointment for my lupus, so I don’t know if that c0unts.  Théo came with me and amused me with the Valentine’s Day messages section in the newspaper.  Thing I learned:  the average French person is just as bad at writing sappy love messages as the average American person.

This one is a sample, but also for Jean-Pierre… my own, my love, my car:

It says, “Jean-Pierre: My love, since we met you have been my daily sunshine/ ray of sunshine!”

Some people might suggest that this picture has been photo-shopped and that the original ad was from some woman named Christine who was talking to a real man and not a green, VW bug.  Those people would be wrong.

After the doctor’s appointment, I attempted to help Théo buy a gift for his sister for her birthday.  It should be noted that I suck at shopping.  We went to jewelry places and clothing stores and makeup places.  Normally our conversations consisted of this:

Théo: How’s this?

Meghan: No… not that.

Théo: How about this?

Meghan: Maybe?

Théo: Maybe?  Do you have any ideas?

Meghan: I don’t know… I’m not really good at being a girl.  Maybe you should ask Annuli to help; she’s a real girl.

Of course, as soon as he decided he was going to get her a television series instead, I was much more helpful.  I gave him 5 things to choose from and promised that she would like whichever one he chose.  He picked Arrested Development, which no one in France has heard of.  I was extremely saddened to find this out.  I’m glad Chloé will at least be able to see its brilliance.  (Here’s to hoping the jokes translate well into French!)

Does it say something that I’m better at DVD shopping than clothing/ jewelry/ makeup shopping?  Other than that I’d be an awful personal shopper.  Ooo!  I can also pick out chocolate!  Food and television…

This is why I don’t like people buying me things for Valentine’s Day.  I don’t even know what to get me for Valentine’s Day.  Besides pain au chocolat, which Théo DID buy for me.  He also got me a drink, so I think that counts.

I just realized I didn’t get him anything.  Who wants to send me glitter so that I can make an obnoxious, heart-shaped card for him with poorly written French poetry (that I may or may not be stealing word-for-word from the newspaper ads from yesterday)?  I know that’s what every guy wants to get for Valentine’s Day so he can show it to all his friends.

Just like that one.

This is probably why God makes sure I’m sick every Valentine’s Day… so that my boyfriends don’t die of embarrassment at their glitter cards.

Pain au chocolat count: 52

If you’re the person who stole the pains au chocolat from my bakery, read no further.

The Meghan, 4 Comments

French Word of the Day: héros (air-oh)- hero, as in “did you ever know that you’re my…”

I have some bad news and some good news.

The bad news is that my bakery ran out of pain au chocolat, which means that it’s possible for that to happen, which means the world just got a little darker.

The good news is that Brittany, my college roommate, sent me a package of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, which have chocolate AND peanut butter.  They’re already gone.  I was going to save them, but then I remembered that bakeries could run out of pain au chocolat, and the Reese’s were needed.  Sometimes I eat my feelings.

She also gave me a historical trashy romance novel… which is the best kind.  I give her a 20, which is the best French grade you can get.  And also this personalized gold star that I made with Paint:

(Coincidentally “gold star” is one of the most commonly searched terms for finding my blog.  True story.)

I also had a good interview today (you would think THAT would be my good news, but chocolate always comes before work).  I think the woman really liked me.  She’s British, so we both have our Anglophone-ness in common.  She was excited that I knew French, because apparently no one on her team has a strong French background (she speaks Italian).

It’s a good thing they’re working in Paris.

I don’t know if I got it, but she’s British, and will therefore probably let me know BEFORE I’m suppose to have completed my internship.

*EDIT*: The British are way faster.  I got the job!

Pain au chocolat count: 50…  sigh

A Picture-Happy Post

The Meghan, 3 Comments

French Word(s) of the Day: en panne (awn panne)- out of order, broken

My camera is en panne (technology doesn’t like me very much), so this post contains blackberry pictures.  Though blurry, they’re probably less blurry than any my camera could have produced.  I got into picture-taking mode this weekend.  This probably means that my blog entry will take 8 times longer to load than usual, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Versailles was lovely, as always.  We got a special tour of the king’s private rooms.  The king had a ceremony every morning when he woke up and when he went to sleep.  People would watch both occasions.  In between these two ceremonies, he would be woken up by his valet and moved to a completely different bed in a completely different room.  This means he fell asleep and woke up twice everyday.  As if being king wasn’t work enough.

Being woken up twice everyday would suck, but I can feel his pain.  My neighbor’s alarm clock rings everyday a half hour before mine does.

We got to go into the chapel at Versailles, which I’ve never been able to do before.  They don’t let you go in, normally.  You just stand outside the chapel entrance and try to take pictures over everyone’s heads.  Not this time!  I was a VIP; I got to cross the red gate.

You want to cross the red gate.  The non-gate-crossers were jealllllous.  They tried to get in with us, but Shelley weeded them out.

Can you hear the angels singing?Not too shabby, eh?

This is where the king sat for mass…  Higher than everyone else.  Nowadays, this is where the people with the loud babies go.  And choirs.

And this is the beautifully painted ceiling.  You can’t see that behind the red gate.

On Sunday, Théo and I finished off my cake.  This was, of course, a very trying task.  Who likes eating delicious, critically-acclaimed cake?

It really was well-received.  Everyone at the party raved about it, and even Arnaud asked me who made it.  Théo has informed me that its deliciousness came from intense amounts of butter, sugar, chocolate, and eggs.  I don’t expect it will appear in any health food cookbooks.  But it really was fabulous.

Théo posing with his masterpiece.  He doesn’t know I’m putting this on here… I might have to take it down if he finds it, so shhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Even the cat wanted some:

 

(He sat on that chair and stared at the cake of his own free will, btws.)

Ok, I leave you now with this photo I took while walking through the metro:

It reads “Vivez la magie de l’Egypte!” which means “Enjoy the magic of Egypt!”

Maybe not right now.

Pain au chocolat count: still 50, but I had CAKE!!!!!!

Une Grand Fête

The Meghan, 2 Comments

French Word of the Day:  anniversaire (anne-ih-verse-air)- birthday

My birthday was yesterday, so naturally a party was in order.  My friend, William, had his birthday last week, so we gathered forces and made a double party.  (I have a twin.  I don’t know how to have a party where it’s just me.  I need to share.)

We know how to throw a party.

Théo talked to the owner of this bar we go to all the time, and he set up the bar for us.  We took over the whole thing.

It was really nice to have a party where I actually knew everyone who was invited.  (With the exception of 4 of William’s friends, all of whom spent the night hitting on some of my American friends.)

Sam was also there.  He actually mentioned the blog.  He said, “So my mom tells me you have a blog.  She read the LOTR entry.  Could you give her a shout out and let her know that I’m really sorry I haven’t been able to take some of her calls?  I’m always busy when she calls.”

Shout out to Mrs. Kunkel!

I asked him if he wanted the address of the blog and he said, “It’s okay, I’ll just ask my mom.”  Sam, if you ever actually read this, I hope I gave an accurate presentation of your message.

Théo made me a cake (brownie cake) for my birthday because I love cake.  He even half-baked it so that the center would be gooey.  This is because “Meghan likes not-fully-cooked things” which is in reference to my consumption of raw cookie dough.  (Is it my fault it tastes better than the actual cookies?)  And also a reference to my getting a half baked chocolate cake (mi-cuit) whenever it’s available on the menu for dessert.

The Americans all left around midnight, missing by just moments the striptease one of my guy friends deemed it was absolutely necessary I have.  I thought he was kidding until he took off his shirt.  We made him keep his boxers on.  After all, it was a birthday party not a bachelorette party.

I took a picture of him taking his shirt off, but I don’t know that he would want me to put it on here.  I assume alcohol was present in his decision to disrobe.

The owner gave me free drinks all night, which was extremely generous of him.  I didn’t have that many, to the chagrin of several of my friends.  But our program is going to Versailles today.  I didn’t want to have to say, “Was this Marie Antoinette’s vase, or am I allowed to throw up in it?”

William and I both had so much fun that he insisted we do it again next year.  When I told him I wasn’t sure if I’d still be in France, he said, “No, you will.  You must.”

It was definitely a good birthday, so I’d do it again.

Pain au chocolat count: 50 (how appropriate to reach this number for my birthday.  I had two yesterday for breakfast)

An Austen Kind of Day

The Meghan5 Comments

French Word of the Day: malade (mah-lad)- ill

My cold has decided it loves me.  Instead of going away, it’s made itself at home.  So much so that I woke up with a fever this morning.  I got out of bed, looked at my bed, and got back in it.

When I woke up again, everyone in the entire Midwest was online because of the massive amounts of snow.  (Nary a flake in Paris…)  I skyped with my mom, and we decided to watch a Jane Austen movie together.

She put her computer in front of the tv, and even made me my own cup of tea.

We decided to watch Persuasion together because Captain Wentworth is incredibly hot.

That’s the skype picture of him.  Even the blue can’t completely mask his true beauty.

That’s a picture taken from the internet to show his hotness up close and personal.  Note the fabulous 19th century dress.  This would make a fabulous theme-wedding outfit.  Theme: My husband loves me a LOT.

I’ve never thought of using skype in this way before, but definitely will again.  Especially if I get my own tea.

Pain au chocolat count: 48

‘Ello Frodon

The Meghan4 Comments

French Word(s) of the Day: Frodon Sacquet (fro-do sack-ey)- Frodo Baggins

The Grand Rex in Paris decided to have a showing of all three Lord of the Rings.

When Sam told me about this event a few weeks ago, I jumped at the chance to attend.  After all, I’m an avid lover of LOTR.   I even have a Legolas and Gimli cardboard cutout:

(Us together in the park a few years ago.  You know it’s true love when you have a photo shoot together.)

Yesterday, Sam and I spent 11 hours in a theater.  I was worried that we weren’t going to be able to make it, but we stayed awake and alert for all three!  Of course, the half hour breaks in between each movie helped.

The French audience had what Sam and I agreed were the proper reactions to the film.  They clapped when they were supposed to clap.  They laughed when they were supposed to laugh.

…They have also decided as a general whole that Orlando Bloom as Legolas is ridiculous and that his lines add nothing to the dialogue.  He’s Captain Obvious.  It doesn’t help that he says them as though he’s announcing he’s just discovered the cure for cancer.

After actually paying attention to the words instead of his face (he’s so pretty) when he speaks, I agree with them.  It’s like the writers realized that Orlando should probably speak, but realized he didn’t have the acting chops to pull off plot-moving dialogue.

Towards the end of the film, Orlando says something so ridiculously obvious and unnecessary that the entire audience applauded his ridiculousness.  I’m not even kidding.  That one line got more applause than anything else in the entire film.

(For those of you who know the film well, it was Legolas’ “A diversion!” line after Aragorn spends several minutes explaining his cunning plan.)

Photo courtesy of Sam
Photo courtesy of Sam

(One of Orlando’s zingers…  The subtitles read “They are taking the hobbits to Isengard!”)

Even though his acting leaves much to be desired, I still like looking at him.

I enjoyed the French subtitles.  I learned several new war words and also learned about some dialogue that is either too slurred or too quiet in English to hear.  But really, the best part was seeing “Frodon” on the screen everytime Frodo’s name was mentioned.

Unfortunately, I have had a cold since yesterday.  It made sitting in a theater a bit more challenging.  Thankfully, LOTR has a ton of battle scenes to cover coughing fits.  (I sat in an aisle seat mostly for my lack of a bladder and partially not to hack up a lung on anyone.)  I timed my coughing accordingly.

I managed to have a successful conversation with the pharmacist today, and my coughing has been (mostly) taken care of.  Luckily, colds go away.  That’s the only good thing about them.

Interview update: The lady loved me and wants to hire me, but isn’t sure she has enough time in her schedule to train me.  She’s letting me know tomorrow (which probably means next week).

Pain au chocolat count: 47

Toooooomorrow, Tomorrow, I’ll call you, Tomorrow. You’re only a day (or three) away!

The Meghan2 Comments

French Word of the Day: demain (day-mawn)- tomorrow

To get off topic and be completely un-French…  I found a new Ken doll, and I’m sad that I’m only just now learning about him.

Sweet Talking Ken Doll

Based on the reviews alone, I want this doll.  “First of all Ken has these hard of rock pecs and when you press his hard rock pec and hold it down and say ‘YOU ARE THE LOVE OF MY LIFE!’ – then let go, guess what Ken says in his own manly voice? – He repeats what you just said…it’s sure to be sold out everywhere, I had a blast playing with it in the store and all of the employees were coming over to join in on the fun!”

I know I’m almost 23, but I feel you’re never too old to have a doll that will say whatever you want it to while sporting this haircut:

Moving away from Ken…  You’re probably all wondering why I didn’t update my blog to write about how the call from the woman who interviewed me went.

That would be because she never called me.  I think we have different ideas of the concept of “tomorrow.”  For me, “tomorrow” is the day after today.  I think her “tomorrow” is sometime within the next year and a half.  I’m talking to my internship people tomorrow (my tomorrow) to get this straightened out.

Tonight we had a cooking class in French.  I can cook.  I know how to measure things.  It’s just the instructions that I have trouble following.  For example, I have no trouble in English when something says to put the ingredients in a tiny cup.  Put it in French, and I don’t even know what the word for “tiny cup” is.

Even though my partner, Emily- who came here a week ago speaking no French at all- and I had no idea what we were doing, our food came out okay.  It’s probably better that no one in the room was listening to us.  Our conversations usually followed in this vein:

Emily: What’s that?

Me: It’s an ingredient.  I think.  Maybe.

Emily: What does it say we have to do with it?

Me: Um, something in French.

Emily: Should we just cut up everything that’s in front of us?

Me: It all gets mixed together, anyway.

We got a lot of help.  No one collapsed on the spot after consuming what we made, so I think we did all right.

Jenna and I have been talking about opening a bakery that specializes in pain au chocolat and macaroons, but our instructions will be in English so I should be okay with those.

Pain au chocolat count: 47