So, somewhat not surprisingly, but at the same time, hey, we're in France, some of the nicest people I know are city workers (SANS police, stupid popo).
Garbage Men: Every once and a while I shoot them a smile while I'm riding past and they usually respond unless they are brain dead as they are usually working at 10pm at night or 7am in the morning. Some other times when I'm trying to get by their trucks they actually would point me in the right direction (either to the left or the right) as they are figuring out a puzzle for me. Endearing, no?
Post Office: Everytime I go there, with usually strange requests, they couldn't be nicer and if they don't know English (as most Parisians switch into English when they realize I suck at French) they at least attempt to speak slower or make sure I completely understand what's going on.
Construction Workers: One classic example that sticks out in my head is from a couple of months ago. I was going home on the metro sometime late at night and since I live the second to last stop on my line there weren't many other people on the train car with me. We pull up to the station before my stop and there are a handfull of twenty something metro construction workers doing something or other on the platform. One of them starts to stare at me, delightful, and opens the metro car door. And something along the lines of "hey, you should come out here and hang out with us." "no, it's late. I have to go home." "maybe tomorrow night?" "maybe." is said in French. (don't worry Mom, he wasn't being creepy, he was genuinely trying to be cute)
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Things that I have found hanging out in my bike basket:
a fedora
an empty wine cup
a list of emergency contacts for Paris
trash
alot more trash
a beeeeautiful scarf!
an empty wine cup
a list of emergency contacts for Paris
trash
alot more trash
a beeeeautiful scarf!
Monday, December 7, 2009
The Expose
I'm sitting here, 9:30 am on a Monday, having woken up at 7am to come to my History of Childhood class wishing I was in bed as I am on the struggle bus for the next half hour until class gets out. As I type (yes I am a terrible student) there are two girls giving an expose on Education and Play in Japan: Tradition, the West, and Evolution.
These girls are great, no disrespect in the fact that it is well researched and they are very good presenters, but it is straight forward, bland, and far too over-encompassing. The whole idea of an Expose is the idea that you pick a specific topic within the topic (today's overall topic was Japanese Childhood). However they are seriously talking about EVERYTHING. Their outline for the expose is an entire page long. It is very strange that our professor even lets it happen as it is really her job to give us the overall idea and not for the Expose to suplement the lecture - as in it is basically completing the lecture (she lets them go for about 30-40 minutes). I guess my understanding of the expose is a little narrowed, but at the same time I think the more focused the expose, the more interesting it is.
As I don't feel like explaining the expose, here is another blogger's view on it (not that I whole heartedly agree as she seems to hate them where I think they, when done well, are delightful - as seen in comparison to writing lengthy and annoying essays - but I say this coming off of a semester of only doing exposes in English and she did them in French - aka harder)
These girls are great, no disrespect in the fact that it is well researched and they are very good presenters, but it is straight forward, bland, and far too over-encompassing. The whole idea of an Expose is the idea that you pick a specific topic within the topic (today's overall topic was Japanese Childhood). However they are seriously talking about EVERYTHING. Their outline for the expose is an entire page long. It is very strange that our professor even lets it happen as it is really her job to give us the overall idea and not for the Expose to suplement the lecture - as in it is basically completing the lecture (she lets them go for about 30-40 minutes). I guess my understanding of the expose is a little narrowed, but at the same time I think the more focused the expose, the more interesting it is.
As I don't feel like explaining the expose, here is another blogger's view on it (not that I whole heartedly agree as she seems to hate them where I think they, when done well, are delightful - as seen in comparison to writing lengthy and annoying essays - but I say this coming off of a semester of only doing exposes in English and she did them in French - aka harder)
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Weirdest Conversation for Directions Thus Far
[while I was taking pictures on my street last night]
Teenager Boy: Pardon, tu habites ici?
Me: Oui?
TB: Qu'est-ce que lkjwlekjrljwlelkjwlkerj?
Me: Pardon? Tu parles très vite. Encore?
TB: Est-ce qu'il y a du pain autour ici?
Me: Du pain? Bread?
TB: Oui. du pain. baguette.
Me: Uhhh...tout est ferme. [it was 10pm at night on a monday]
TB: Ok....
Me: Rue Felix Faure, la-bas. Peut-être. [I point behind him] [a more commercial street with restaurants]
TB: Ok....[then he walks off in that direction with his friend]
Teenager Boy: Pardon, tu habites ici?
Me: Oui?
TB: Qu'est-ce que lkjwlekjrljwlelkjwlkerj?
Me: Pardon? Tu parles très vite. Encore?
TB: Est-ce qu'il y a du pain autour ici?
Me: Du pain? Bread?
TB: Oui. du pain. baguette.
Me: Uhhh...tout est ferme. [it was 10pm at night on a monday]
TB: Ok....
Me: Rue Felix Faure, la-bas. Peut-être. [I point behind him] [a more commercial street with restaurants]
TB: Ok....[then he walks off in that direction with his friend]
Suck it, it's Christmas time in France.
I had become a little dis-enchanted with Paris recently, but this definitely brought my mood around. I'm not sure if it was because it was the last night of November or something, but all of the Christmas lights around town that they have been putting up for the last month or so were lit up on my bike ride home. I took mad pics. And tried to take a video of it....but then almost got run over by a car coming out of a side street that didn't stop at the intersection....idiot.
Rue Lecourbe
Rue de la Convention
Intersection of de la Convention and Felix Faure
My street! Rue Saint Charles - that you can see the Eiffel Tower from :)
Rue Lecourbe
Rue de la Convention
Intersection of de la Convention and Felix Faure
My street! Rue Saint Charles - that you can see the Eiffel Tower from :)
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Hug o' War
French Fabien shared his favorite poem with me, and wanted to know if I had a favorite poem (since I fed him some stereotypical e.e. cummings ones, but told him they weren't my favorites)
Sensation
Par les soirs bleus d'été, j'irai dans les sentiers,
Picoté par les blés, fouler l'herbe menue :
Rêveur, j'en sentirai la fraîcheur à mes pieds.
Je laisserai le vent baigner ma tête nue.
Je ne parlerai pas, je ne penserai rien :
Mais l'amour infini me montera dans l'âme,
Et j'irai loin, bien loin, comme un bohémien,
Par la nature, heureux comme avec une femme.
Arthur Rimbaud
Mars 1870.
__
On the blue summer evenings, I shall go down the paths,
Getting pricked by the corn, crushing the short grass :
In a dream I shall feel its coolness on my feet.
I shall let the wind bathe my bare head.
I shall not speak, I shall think about nothing :
But endless love will mount in my soul
And I shall travel far, very far, like a gipsy,
Through the countryside - as happy as if I were with a woman.
this is what I sort of came up with, less of super super favorites, more of ones with meaning for me:
Hug O' War
Shel Silverstein
I will not play at tug o' war
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses
And everyone grins
And everyone cuddles
And everyone wins.
_____________________________________________
Juliet: Act IV, sc. 3
Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins,
That almost freezes up the heat of life:
I'll call them back again to comfort me:
Nurse! What should she do here?
My dismal scene I needs must act alone.
Come, vial.
What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?
No, no: this shall forbid it: lie thou there.
Laying down her dagger
What if it be a poison, which the friar
Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead,
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd,
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear it is: and yet, methinks, it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man.
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point!
Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault,
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like,
The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place,--
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,
Where, for these many hundred years, the bones
Of all my buried ancestors are packed:
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say,
At some hours in the night spirits resort;--
Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
So early waking, what with loathsome smells,
And shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad:--
O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
Environed with all these hideous fears?
And madly play with my forefather's joints?
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud?
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone,
As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?
O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier's point: stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.
Two things I had to memorize in younger amanda days to recite in class.
Sensation
Par les soirs bleus d'été, j'irai dans les sentiers,
Picoté par les blés, fouler l'herbe menue :
Rêveur, j'en sentirai la fraîcheur à mes pieds.
Je laisserai le vent baigner ma tête nue.
Je ne parlerai pas, je ne penserai rien :
Mais l'amour infini me montera dans l'âme,
Et j'irai loin, bien loin, comme un bohémien,
Par la nature, heureux comme avec une femme.
Arthur Rimbaud
Mars 1870.
__
On the blue summer evenings, I shall go down the paths,
Getting pricked by the corn, crushing the short grass :
In a dream I shall feel its coolness on my feet.
I shall let the wind bathe my bare head.
I shall not speak, I shall think about nothing :
But endless love will mount in my soul
And I shall travel far, very far, like a gipsy,
Through the countryside - as happy as if I were with a woman.
this is what I sort of came up with, less of super super favorites, more of ones with meaning for me:
Hug O' War
Shel Silverstein
I will not play at tug o' war
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses
And everyone grins
And everyone cuddles
And everyone wins.
_____________________________________________
Juliet: Act IV, sc. 3
Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins,
That almost freezes up the heat of life:
I'll call them back again to comfort me:
Nurse! What should she do here?
My dismal scene I needs must act alone.
Come, vial.
What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?
No, no: this shall forbid it: lie thou there.
Laying down her dagger
What if it be a poison, which the friar
Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead,
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd,
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear it is: and yet, methinks, it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man.
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point!
Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault,
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like,
The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place,--
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,
Where, for these many hundred years, the bones
Of all my buried ancestors are packed:
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say,
At some hours in the night spirits resort;--
Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
So early waking, what with loathsome smells,
And shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad:--
O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
Environed with all these hideous fears?
And madly play with my forefather's joints?
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud?
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone,
As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?
O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier's point: stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.
Two things I had to memorize in younger amanda days to recite in class.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
I need to start hanging out with people my own age
So I took a little field trip to Saint Denis recently. In Saint Denis there is this huge basilica that houses all but three of the dead Kings of France, many of their spouses, nobles, and relatives. Instead of attempting to convince someone to take a half hour metro ride into a banlieue with me to go see nerdy historical things I figured I'd go by myself. Thus, including the two random British tourist twenty-somethings that showed up that day, there were only three people at the basilica under the age of 60. Whenever I started to listen to the tour guide all the old people would give me a look of "why the hell is this random girl here by herself?"
(old people)
Alas, it was pretty fucking awesome. The background story that I understand is that underneath the currently basilica there was a huge mess of people burried in sarcophaguses from the first millenium. After an archaeological dig about a decade or so ago, most of those tombs were brought upstairs to the main floor and are placed around the cathedral. Aka Holy Shit, there are people in these tombs and they are really really old. Another cool thing to think about is that these carved figures where actually painted with really beautiful bright colors but now they are just white, sad.
(archaelogical site under the crypt)
(tombs brought upstairs)
Final cool/weird thing. Down in the crypt, woooooo crypt (insert erry music here), is many of the Bourbon royalty. One of the things is Louis XVII's heart. Legit, it's his heart.
Other thing in the crypt is the graves of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, but funny story - their remains were taken out of a mass grave and put here, aka they could be their remains, they could not, who knows.
All in all, if you're in Paris and you have 3 hours to kill you should go. Especially because Saint Denis is a pretty cool city with alot of old buildings and a huge indoor marche right in the center of town, which is cool to walk through (even though I kept awkwardly getting hit on by random vendors since I showed up right as they were cleaning up and no one else was around).
(Henry and Catherine de Medici being all naked in their tomb. weird)
(old people)Alas, it was pretty fucking awesome. The background story that I understand is that underneath the currently basilica there was a huge mess of people burried in sarcophaguses from the first millenium. After an archaeological dig about a decade or so ago, most of those tombs were brought upstairs to the main floor and are placed around the cathedral. Aka Holy Shit, there are people in these tombs and they are really really old. Another cool thing to think about is that these carved figures where actually painted with really beautiful bright colors but now they are just white, sad.
(archaelogical site under the crypt)
(tombs brought upstairs)Final cool/weird thing. Down in the crypt, woooooo crypt (insert erry music here), is many of the Bourbon royalty. One of the things is Louis XVII's heart. Legit, it's his heart.
Other thing in the crypt is the graves of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, but funny story - their remains were taken out of a mass grave and put here, aka they could be their remains, they could not, who knows.
All in all, if you're in Paris and you have 3 hours to kill you should go. Especially because Saint Denis is a pretty cool city with alot of old buildings and a huge indoor marche right in the center of town, which is cool to walk through (even though I kept awkwardly getting hit on by random vendors since I showed up right as they were cleaning up and no one else was around).
(Henry and Catherine de Medici being all naked in their tomb. weird)
Monday, November 16, 2009
The crap that has compiled onto my laptop keyboard, Dad don't read this post.
I think it's a combination of:
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Velib Shmelib.
So Jay and I went on a biking adventure this afternoon. We got Jay a Velib and biked over the Seine into the 16th and wandered around a bit before actually finding Bois de Bologne - course we ended up at the Arc de Triomphe which is at the top of the park when we planned on entering it at the bottom. Alas. We ended up finding a neat park which was suppose to have a chateau, but instead just had some nice buildings on the premises and a garden that I wish I had pillaged. Then to finish off our park adventure we went over to another gated off park (you have to lock up your bikes outside since you can only walk around them) that has this really cool Shakespeare Theatre that's basically built into nature. You sit on grass, the backstage is in a little hill, the stage is made of stone, super cool. On our way out - around sunset - Jay goes to unlock his Velib, and oh funny story, the key breaks. We can't get his bike unlocked, I have no more credit on my phone, and it's about to be dark. GREAT
So we minorly freak out for a second and then I scoot off on my bike to go find a velib station and get credit for my phone. I get to a velib station and call an operator who I can't understand between my poor French and the fact that I'm on a major street. A nice French guy tries to help me out, but I need Jay's pin number which he has on him. GREAT.
So for the next half hour I frantically look for a place to buy credit after trying a super market, a gas station, a newspaper stand, and a pharmacie, a minimart has it. It's dark by this point, I race back to the middle of the park and I find Jay literally about to leave the bike and walk home because I've been gone for almost an hour.
The moral of the story, JUST BORROW SOMEONE'S PHONE. Because that's what Jay did right after I left (and of course didn't have my number on him, silly us) and found out he can just mail the key and his pin number to the velib people and they are just going to come pick up the bike in the morning. REALLY? Yes, really.
So we take the metro to the Marais and eat a butt-ton of falafel. So all's well that ends well.
AND! Best part that I cannot believe I forgot we saw TWO prostitutes in the Bois on the walk out of the park last night. One was standing on the side of the road leaning against a sign post - completely dressed in black and unable to be seen without the light of a passing car. The other coming out of the woods with a man in tow who's breasts were basically falling out of her shirt - if you could call it that.
So we minorly freak out for a second and then I scoot off on my bike to go find a velib station and get credit for my phone. I get to a velib station and call an operator who I can't understand between my poor French and the fact that I'm on a major street. A nice French guy tries to help me out, but I need Jay's pin number which he has on him. GREAT.
So for the next half hour I frantically look for a place to buy credit after trying a super market, a gas station, a newspaper stand, and a pharmacie, a minimart has it. It's dark by this point, I race back to the middle of the park and I find Jay literally about to leave the bike and walk home because I've been gone for almost an hour.
The moral of the story, JUST BORROW SOMEONE'S PHONE. Because that's what Jay did right after I left (and of course didn't have my number on him, silly us) and found out he can just mail the key and his pin number to the velib people and they are just going to come pick up the bike in the morning. REALLY? Yes, really.
So we take the metro to the Marais and eat a butt-ton of falafel. So all's well that ends well.
AND! Best part that I cannot believe I forgot we saw TWO prostitutes in the Bois on the walk out of the park last night. One was standing on the side of the road leaning against a sign post - completely dressed in black and unable to be seen without the light of a passing car. The other coming out of the woods with a man in tow who's breasts were basically falling out of her shirt - if you could call it that.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Apartments and Rants
So I'm at this awkward turning point in my living situation where my 'contract' is up at the end of January and as long as my fake host family doesn't really hate me that much I can probably renew my so-called 'contract' until the end of May. Just because I kind of want to switch it up a little and maybe see if I can get housing closer to campus I have started looking for stuff. But in reality I won't really be able to find anything until end of December/beginning of January because anyone who is posting now is looking for people to rent now.
But all of this apartment stuff swirling around in my head got me thinking about the fact that I know no one in my building. And the fact that they all make so much freaking noise all of the time. For the past three days someone has been blasting music from god knows where at strange hours of the day. Sometimes it's Cream. Sometimes it's pop-rock. Last night at 2am it was baroque music. Really? Really? And then it always sounds like there are mice running around in my hallway and the floor above me and below me, but I have to assume, for my sanity, that they are just weird neighbors, doing weird things.
And that gets me to the one really legitimate reason why I want to move. They have started construction on my building -they are installing handicap related things, so kudos for them, but not for me when they start work at 8am on Saturdays. It definitely reminds me of last year at Guthridge and Munson, and I would not like to repeat that situation for the next seven months.
But all of this apartment stuff swirling around in my head got me thinking about the fact that I know no one in my building. And the fact that they all make so much freaking noise all of the time. For the past three days someone has been blasting music from god knows where at strange hours of the day. Sometimes it's Cream. Sometimes it's pop-rock. Last night at 2am it was baroque music. Really? Really? And then it always sounds like there are mice running around in my hallway and the floor above me and below me, but I have to assume, for my sanity, that they are just weird neighbors, doing weird things.
And that gets me to the one really legitimate reason why I want to move. They have started construction on my building -they are installing handicap related things, so kudos for them, but not for me when they start work at 8am on Saturdays. It definitely reminds me of last year at Guthridge and Munson, and I would not like to repeat that situation for the next seven months.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Versailles Bike Trip Dry Run otherwise known as I should stop almost getting in trouble by French authorities
I can't write full sentences. And I just explained it in full to my sister via gchat. Hello Internet 2.0 and copy paste.
10:11 PM me: i went to versailles today on my bike
Jennifer: isn't that a hike?
me: it's 15km' so it took like an hour and a half
Jennifer: oh that's not bad
me: since i stopped a couple of times
Jennifer: i took the train when i went. it felt farther
me: and had to walk my bike up two hills
10:12 PM Jennifer: did you go just for the ride or to see versailles?
me: and then walk it back down the other side since literally i would probably have been going 40 miles per hour if i didn't get off
Jennifer: haha brakes girl
me: i went to versailles a month ago with my friends (i concur, the train ride seemed way too long for how close it is) i would have died even with breaks my bike isn't that good
Jennifer: ah
me: i swear i probably blew out the tires today going over all that fucking cobblestone
10:13 PM bane of my existance but i biked around the gardens because it's free and then you have to be an EU citizen and under 26 to get into stuff free and so i flashed my student id card from sciences po and said i was from angleterre (england) and done. that got me into the petit trianon it wouldn't have worked in the actual palace however
10:14 PM oh! and i almost got in troulbe twice! it was awesome once for climbing and sitting on a high rock (stupid) and the other for attempting to steal vegetables (long story short)
10:15 PM Jennifer: lol you were trying to steal vegetables? and i'm the hippie kid? :P
me: :DDDDDD i made beet salad with my new beets :DD
Jennifer: you stole beets? OY VEY
10:16 PM you're ridic "hay i stole beets from versailles. i am amanda leslie' :P
10:18 PM me: well no so here's the story
10:19 PM first it starts with that they obviously don't harvest the cutesy vegetables that are in marie antoinette's little village aka i see half of it rotting so i steal some leaves of lettuce for my sandwich and some grapes there are just loads of grapes i only take a few
10:20 PM then later on my way out i just wander into this other part which are like mini private gardens that are just haphasardly attended behind this big hedge so i'm like wahh? this is so weird so i go look at the vegetables that are on their last legs to see if i can salvage any of it all the tomatoes, which were probably good 3 weeks ago are gross there is a bunch of squash so i take two
10:21 PM you can tell no one is coming to get them and then i wander over to an apple tree
my favorite type of free food in france is apple trees because they are just randomly planted everywhere as in i got apples from an apple tree at a highway rest stop on sunday
Jennifer: HIPPIE
me: and so i'm trying to get these apples down from this tree and a police guy comes
10:22 PM and i start to run away and (this is in french btw)
Jennifer: you have a lot of run ins with the french :P
me: he's like why are you running away? so i walk up to him because obvi he has a car with him
Jennifer: haha
10:23 PM me: so i can't escape and he's like what are you doing? looks in my bag for apples and i'm confused because he's saying stuff fast in french and walking back and forth to his car
10:24 PM and so i take the squash out of my bag and i don't really know what's going on but he's like no no keep your squash you bought them right? and i'm like yeah? i guess? and then he asks for my id
Jennifer: haha
me: so i give him my student card
Jennifer: you are gettign in so much ridiculous trouble.
me: and he's like oh you don't have an address? and i say no, and he realizes i'm american and then he's like come with me
10:25 PM Jennifer: geez
me: so i follow him and 1. he's weird because there is dog poop on the ground and he asked me if i did it? GROSS.
Jennifer: LOL geeeeeeez
me: 2. i then realize that i'm not in trouble and he leads me into another garden that there is no way out of
Jennifer: ??
me: and so i'm like SHIT. HE'S GOING TO KILL/RAPE ME and then he walks over to some beets
10:26 PM and is like do you want some?
Jennifer: LOL
me: and i'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo confused
Jennifer: LOLOLOLOL
me: and he says oh, those apples are my friend's so you can't have those but if you want some of my beets please have them and i'm like oook if you want me to have them?
Jennifer: LOLLLLL
me: so he graps two big beets
Jennifer: too fucking funny jesus christ
me: and gives them to me and then i bike away into the sunset RIDICULOUS
10:27 PM Jennifer: You need to be careful! :P
me: i know it was stupid
Jennifer: This is yr second run in with the policeee me: but it's weird because i guess he was coming to tend his garden
Jennifer: but he was a cop?
me: i guess all the police guys who work at chateaux de versailles gets their own garden plot
Jennifer: ah
me: he was a security at the chateaux
10:28 PM but yes, it was weird that he was coming to his own garden because if he just hadn't come, no one would have found me it looked like those gardens were post war i was sure no one has touched them since the summer
Jennifer: lol post war?
me: yes like a bomb blew up and pooped out some vegetables
Jennifer: lol oy veyyyi <3<3<3
10:11 PM me: i went to versailles today on my bike
Jennifer: isn't that a hike?
me: it's 15km' so it took like an hour and a half
Jennifer: oh that's not bad
me: since i stopped a couple of times
Jennifer: i took the train when i went. it felt farther
me: and had to walk my bike up two hills
10:12 PM Jennifer: did you go just for the ride or to see versailles?
me: and then walk it back down the other side since literally i would probably have been going 40 miles per hour if i didn't get off
Jennifer: haha brakes girl
me: i went to versailles a month ago with my friends (i concur, the train ride seemed way too long for how close it is) i would have died even with breaks my bike isn't that good
Jennifer: ah
me: i swear i probably blew out the tires today going over all that fucking cobblestone
10:13 PM bane of my existance but i biked around the gardens because it's free and then you have to be an EU citizen and under 26 to get into stuff free and so i flashed my student id card from sciences po and said i was from angleterre (england) and done. that got me into the petit trianon it wouldn't have worked in the actual palace however
10:14 PM oh! and i almost got in troulbe twice! it was awesome once for climbing and sitting on a high rock (stupid) and the other for attempting to steal vegetables (long story short)
10:15 PM Jennifer: lol you were trying to steal vegetables? and i'm the hippie kid? :P
me: :DDDDDD i made beet salad with my new beets :DD
Jennifer: you stole beets? OY VEY
10:16 PM you're ridic "hay i stole beets from versailles. i am amanda leslie' :P
10:18 PM me: well no so here's the story
10:19 PM first it starts with that they obviously don't harvest the cutesy vegetables that are in marie antoinette's little village aka i see half of it rotting so i steal some leaves of lettuce for my sandwich and some grapes there are just loads of grapes i only take a few
10:20 PM then later on my way out i just wander into this other part which are like mini private gardens that are just haphasardly attended behind this big hedge so i'm like wahh? this is so weird so i go look at the vegetables that are on their last legs to see if i can salvage any of it all the tomatoes, which were probably good 3 weeks ago are gross there is a bunch of squash so i take two
10:21 PM you can tell no one is coming to get them and then i wander over to an apple tree
my favorite type of free food in france is apple trees because they are just randomly planted everywhere as in i got apples from an apple tree at a highway rest stop on sunday
Jennifer: HIPPIE
me: and so i'm trying to get these apples down from this tree and a police guy comes
10:22 PM and i start to run away and (this is in french btw)
Jennifer: you have a lot of run ins with the french :P
me: he's like why are you running away? so i walk up to him because obvi he has a car with him
Jennifer: haha
10:23 PM me: so i can't escape and he's like what are you doing? looks in my bag for apples and i'm confused because he's saying stuff fast in french and walking back and forth to his car
10:24 PM and so i take the squash out of my bag and i don't really know what's going on but he's like no no keep your squash you bought them right? and i'm like yeah? i guess? and then he asks for my id
Jennifer: haha
me: so i give him my student card
Jennifer: you are gettign in so much ridiculous trouble.
me: and he's like oh you don't have an address? and i say no, and he realizes i'm american and then he's like come with me
10:25 PM Jennifer: geez
me: so i follow him and 1. he's weird because there is dog poop on the ground and he asked me if i did it? GROSS.
Jennifer: LOL geeeeeeez
me: 2. i then realize that i'm not in trouble and he leads me into another garden that there is no way out of
Jennifer: ??
me: and so i'm like SHIT. HE'S GOING TO KILL/RAPE ME and then he walks over to some beets
10:26 PM and is like do you want some?
Jennifer: LOL
me: and i'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo confused
Jennifer: LOLOLOLOL
me: and he says oh, those apples are my friend's so you can't have those but if you want some of my beets please have them and i'm like oook if you want me to have them?
Jennifer: LOLLLLL
me: so he graps two big beets
Jennifer: too fucking funny jesus christ
me: and gives them to me and then i bike away into the sunset RIDICULOUS
10:27 PM Jennifer: You need to be careful! :P
me: i know it was stupid
Jennifer: This is yr second run in with the policeee me: but it's weird because i guess he was coming to tend his garden
Jennifer: but he was a cop?
me: i guess all the police guys who work at chateaux de versailles gets their own garden plot
Jennifer: ah
me: he was a security at the chateaux
10:28 PM but yes, it was weird that he was coming to his own garden because if he just hadn't come, no one would have found me it looked like those gardens were post war i was sure no one has touched them since the summer
Jennifer: lol post war?
me: yes like a bomb blew up and pooped out some vegetables
Jennifer: lol oy veyyyi <3<3<3
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Thanks G-dub for picking up the tab!
So we got to go to Normandy this weekend for free? When does that happen? Oh...you mean it's in our tuition bill. Greeeeat.
Highlights of the trip:
Free Museum
Free tour of Mont Saint Michel
Highlights of the trip:
Free Museum
Free bus ride to Pont du Hoc
Omaha Beach
American Cemetary
Free 4 course dinner
Free Hotel on Mont Saint Michel
Free Hotel on Mont Saint Michel
Free Breakfast
Free tour of Mont Saint Michel
Free Dinner at a cool town on the way home
As you can see I left out lunches - cheap bastards made us pay for that ourselves.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
zone d'éducation prioritaire - the ZEP Schools
So rewind for a second. I was in Mauritius this summer teaching English. English and French are both taught in schools, but English is the official language of Mauritius which is funny because less than 1% apparently speaks it. So while we were there, and especially because our program director was writing a thesis on the Mauritian education system we found out quite a bit about how the government runs the schools and what sort of funding and programs take place to alleviate the problems that come with all school systems all over the world.
So basically I just really wanted to write a blog post about that fact that I thought it was interesting that there are certain schools that are ZEP schools in France and in Mauritius.
Obviously they got the idea for ZEP schools from France (which is funny because they were "strategically renamed ZEP in 2003" in Mauritius) and both work by giving extra funding to under performing public schools.
In France, from what I've read, since they installed ZEP in the 70s and 80s it hasn't helped very much even though the idea of increasing funding to reduce class size and better performance was believed to be what would work. Apparently 1 in 5 teenagers in France go to a subsided school, and many of them are ZEP. And obviously this goes deeper as these problems come from the segregation along ethnic and racial lines of school districts (which just comes from economic segregation of housing and what not) and how it is hard to keep experienced teachers working there. And then parents sometimes just let their kids drop out of school all together.
In Mauritius, with a population made up mainly of peoples of Indian and African decent, ethnic and economic divide plays some part (especially when you find out that basically the Department of Education and numerous other government departments are run by all Indian staffs), but the defined purpose of the ZEP schools is to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals 1 and 2 and alleviate poverty. Thus the ZEP schools are funded by the government, UNDevelopmentProgram (in Mauritius and Seyschelles) and UNESCO. Here is the January 2009 update, probably the most interesting bits since it's the most recent stuff to come out of the UN about it.
And damn it if I actually find something interesting that I learned at college. This book was discussed in my anthropology class - Ethnicity, Immigration, and Nationalism - and it just came up when I googled 'ZEP schools france.' I could make this post longer, but I'd probably bore you all to death and just list statistics and reasons why I think the French education system is fucked up. But maybe I'll just leave that for another post.
So basically I just really wanted to write a blog post about that fact that I thought it was interesting that there are certain schools that are ZEP schools in France and in Mauritius.
Obviously they got the idea for ZEP schools from France (which is funny because they were "strategically renamed ZEP in 2003" in Mauritius) and both work by giving extra funding to under performing public schools.
In France, from what I've read, since they installed ZEP in the 70s and 80s it hasn't helped very much even though the idea of increasing funding to reduce class size and better performance was believed to be what would work. Apparently 1 in 5 teenagers in France go to a subsided school, and many of them are ZEP. And obviously this goes deeper as these problems come from the segregation along ethnic and racial lines of school districts (which just comes from economic segregation of housing and what not) and how it is hard to keep experienced teachers working there. And then parents sometimes just let their kids drop out of school all together.
In Mauritius, with a population made up mainly of peoples of Indian and African decent, ethnic and economic divide plays some part (especially when you find out that basically the Department of Education and numerous other government departments are run by all Indian staffs), but the defined purpose of the ZEP schools is to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals 1 and 2 and alleviate poverty. Thus the ZEP schools are funded by the government, UNDevelopmentProgram (in Mauritius and Seyschelles) and UNESCO. Here is the January 2009 update, probably the most interesting bits since it's the most recent stuff to come out of the UN about it.
And damn it if I actually find something interesting that I learned at college. This book was discussed in my anthropology class - Ethnicity, Immigration, and Nationalism - and it just came up when I googled 'ZEP schools france.' I could make this post longer, but I'd probably bore you all to death and just list statistics and reasons why I think the French education system is fucked up. But maybe I'll just leave that for another post.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Fashion Week
So since I'm not in Berlin right now you have the pleasure of reading this blog post (all 3 of you!)
On Wednesday a bunch of GW girls got to dress models for the Elie Saab Ready to Wear (Pret a Porter) fashion show in the Tulleries Garden at the Louvre. It was very much what I expected - not chaotic to chaotic in about 2 minutes flat. And the shoes were really high. And hard to put on. This was the model I dressed with another girl. And our model was really nice, thank goodness.
Here is the entire show in photographs
Here is a video montage of them getting their make up done and some of the show
If you're on FB, Jana has some sweet pictures
On Wednesday a bunch of GW girls got to dress models for the Elie Saab Ready to Wear (Pret a Porter) fashion show in the Tulleries Garden at the Louvre. It was very much what I expected - not chaotic to chaotic in about 2 minutes flat. And the shoes were really high. And hard to put on. This was the model I dressed with another girl. And our model was really nice, thank goodness.
Here is the entire show in photographs
Here is a video montage of them getting their make up done and some of the show
If you're on FB, Jana has some sweet pictures
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