you kinda lost me on that one...

So, throughout this whole student strike business, I've been feeling pretty ambivalent about the whole thing.  Part of me is like, what are these people doing?  All that they are accomplishing is blocking everyone else from going to class.  I feel like this is the attitude of a lot of the people I know, and especially the other american students, who are sick of not knowing if they are going to have class and not knowing what is going on .  

On the other hand, the revolutionary activist in me has a different attitude: rock on guys, fight the system and don't let your universities become privatized!  I don't know all the particularities of the law, but from what I have read and heard, I'm not a big fan of it.  

So overall, I just don't know what to think about all of this.  I like to see students standing up to the state and fighting against something that they don't think is right, but at the same time, I think that blocking campus is taking it a little too far.  Strike and protest in the street; cool, I'm behind you, but once you start impeding on other peoples' rights and abilities to get on with their lives, I'm not sure it's such a good thing.  It's kind of a fine line, I think.

And they crossed it yesterday and really lost my support.  

Here's some context:

The administration has been taking a lot of steps to get things back on track and negotiate with the blockers.  One of the big issues has been getting legitimate student input on the whole thing.  The AGs, which are big student meetings where everyone is invited to come and speak their mind and vote (by a count of raised hands) on different things, are basically being run by the students who are leading the movement, and the majority of people who make it to them are those who are for the strike.  Therefore, they continue to vote to continue the strike.  Their argument is that the AGs are open and that anyone can come and vote as they like, which is a valid argument, but not very practical.  

Last week, the university organized an online vote, which was decided to be illegitimate at an AG, so the students called for a boycott.  The majority (with about 35% of the students voting) called to stop the blockage and get back to classes, but who knows what would have happened if the vote hadn't been boycotted, so that vote didn't do much.  This week, the administration has been holding meetings and negotiations and agreed to hold an in-person, secret ballot vote on campus, which was something the student blockers had been asking for (although, after all that, they said they wouldn't accept the results of it...?).  The administration has really been pushing to reopen the campuses and allow students to return to classes, but it sounds like they were quite open to continuing discussions and debates, just in a slightly different context.

Anyway, it has finally been looking like things might return to relative normalcy...until last night when a big group of students went into a grocery store en masse, filled at least 5 grocery carts with food, and passed through the cash registers without paying.  Apparently there were about 50 of them, and they attacked a security guard who tried to stop them, so there was little anyone could do to stop them.  They took the stoled food back to the Bron campus, where they were met by police and a number of arrests were made.  The administration decided to close the campus for at least two more days while they try to figure out what to do.

Ok, seriously guys, that's just ridiculous!  I don't understand how they expect people to take them seriously if they are pulling stunts like that.  I certainly can't.

Something that has really been bugging me about this whole thing is that it started as a movement against a law that a lot of people are against, a law that was passed under shady circumstances, but I have hardly heard anyone really talking about the law for a couple weeks now.  Granted, I haven't been attending a lot of the meetings, but I feel like most of the debate has been around the blocking of campus and whether that should continue.  Which is a very different question.  I know a lot of people who say the law is bad, but also that blocking campus is not the right answer. 

I'm not sure how to conclude other than: arrgghhhhh.  This whole thing has become ridiculous.  I am a lot less affected by it because the IEP has yet to vote to block campus, and therefore all I have been missing is capoeira and purtuguese (although I really miss capoeira and haven't been able to go to the senzala studio for non-university classes), but a lot of people are missing all their classes and all of the work has to be made up somehow, which could get difficult if this continues. 

And that is my 2 cents.  Speaking of work, I have two tests next week and some portuguese homework that I really should be doing, so I'm going to end this here.

Bisous.

coolest idea ever

So, on my first morning in London (ie Saturday), whilst munching on toast (which I was SO excited about because I don't have a toaster in my kitchen and I don't buy sliced bread), I started chatting with this guy who was staying in my hostel. We were talking about music and he told me that he had made mix CDs and brought them with him to give to people and he left me a copy on my bed. It is so cool!! And what a cool idea for people who are traveling, especially when staying in hostels! I love it!!

Going to London ended up being a really amazing experience. I was talking to one of the guys at the conference, Clint (from Mesa, AZ), and he was saying that London was never really on his list of places to go, but he was really glad he went. I feel the same way. I mean, I guess I've always wanted to at least see London, but it's never been all that high on my list. Then I got an email about this Globalization and Justice Conference put on by Americans for Informed Democracy, and thought it sounded interesting, so I signed up and headed over the channel with my friend Margot to Londontown.  One airport fiasco, a train ride, some claustrophobia at Liverpool Street station, and wandering nonsensically up and down Holborn Road, we arrived at the Faraday House, where the conference was being held, just in time to miss introductions but still able to eat pizza.

The conference was a REALLY good thing for me.  I have always been a relatively engaged and I've gotten used to working with campus groups like CAER or doing other organizing (or just sitting outside Napoleon's apartment drinking wine and talking local and national politics), and those are all things that have been missing in my life being here, although I have tried to stay apprised of what's going on in the student movement lately and went to an Assemblée Générale last week just to see what it would be like.  That isn't the point right now, though.  The point is, I needed this weekend as a reminder of what it's like to spend time with other engaged people and discuss important issues and come up with ways to be active and organize and all that jazz.  I think that, most of all, I am glad I went because I was able to connect and interact with people at the conference on levels that I haven't experienced in a while.  With the other American students here, it's all traveling and what we did over the weekend and "I miss home", etc. and I'm not really to a point with most of the french students I know to sit and discuss global issues and have fun at the same time.  Not that any of that is bad, it's just different from what I am used to.  

Basically, the conference was made up of american college students, both in the states and students studying abroad, and a number of british students as well (although none from London, which could have been helpful at certain moments when we were wandering around in the middle of the night not entirely sure where we were).  There were people there who had done a bit of organizing/activism type stuff, as well as people who had never done any of it, and mostly just came to see London.  And we all got together and heard speakers talk about globalization and justice and discussed the issues that were important to us individually, and got into small groups to work on either creating an issue-based campaign or writing a policy proposal.  With my group, we wrote a proposal to propose a resolution to the UN calling for member states to give power to indigenous peoples in the creation of environmental policy.  Which we might even work more on, which would be pretty cool.  That was an interesting exercise, actually.  At conferences in the past, the focus has either been on speakers and discussions rather than projects, or on more specific mock-situation exercises.  This, on the other hand, was very open: pick an issue and create a campaign or write a policy proposal.  You have about 5 hours.  Go!  It obviously didn't come without a certain amount of frustration, compromise, and letting go, but I was amazed at what we came up with in the end.

Aside from the conference itself, though, the whole trip was just amazing and SO good for me.  I met this great group of people, who I will hopefully stay in touch with, and wandered around and went out and had an all around good time.  It's really good to break up the monotony of life sometimes, and if you are going to do it, you might as well do it right, and really make the most of it.  

I didn't have a whole lot of time for touristy stuff, because we were doing the conference for the majority of daylight hours (which there weren't all that many of), and then going pubhopping and then sleeping and doing it again.  We did do a group tour, which was a "ghost tour," where we wandered around and our guide told us about the various ghosts haunting different buildings and the really quite gruesome past of London.  It was a strange but fun experience.  On Sunday, we had the afternoon to ourselves, and went shopping on Oxford Street, and then walked along the Thames and saw Big Ben and the Eye and pretty much everything that is along the Thames from the Eye to the Tate Modern, which was SUCH an amazing museum.  

Finally, I spent the night in the Stansted airport outside of London, which was awful because it was FREEZING and there were people ever and I was trying very unsuccessfully to sleep on the cold hard linoleum floor, and then when I was finally able to go through security and found a seat at my gate, I started to doze off and almost missed my plane, but I made it home in one piece.  I spent most of yesterday in bed and slept a lot because I hardly slept most of the weekend, especially the last night in the airport, and I was mentally exhausted from the whole thing, so I took a personal day.  

And now I'm back to life as usual.  It kind of feels like London was this little blip in life that is fully separated from everything else because it was kind of in this little universe apart from everything.  Everyone spoke English and there were people from the states and I met all these cool new people and there was cream cheese and then I came back and everything was more or less the same.  And no one spoke English (ok, that's an exaggeration) and it was all people I knew and there was no cream cheese (pretty much there was no food at all in my fridge).  That makes it sound like I was disappointed to come back to Lyon, but I wasn't.  I wish the whole thing had been a little longer because I feel like I was just getting used to it when everyone had to leave.  Which is what happens at stuff like that.  I know that.  And I am happy to be back in Lyon to a place I know my way around and I don't feel like I have to be constantly on the move to see the most stuff possible in like 60 hours.  London was fun to visit, but it's definitely NOT a place I would ever want to live.

Anyway...it's way too late for me to be awake (my sleep schedule is all kinds of off...plus I had coffee at 7 to make it through one of my classes tonight....not such a brilliant idea.

So, goodnight!

Bisous.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As usual, I really should be in bed...or packing...but I am not actually that sleepy (I think I will have a different opinion as soon as I get in bed though) and I HATE packing, so here I am. I had a delicious frenchified Thanksgiving dinner (no mashed potatos, though, which was really lame) and ate WAY too much and got to see everyone, and overall it was a really good thing to have happen.

I could tell a million stories about today, actually, but in a nutshell, there is a new job, the riot police were all over my neighborhood today, and students are still protesting, I finally have the two books I needed to buy for school, bought tickets to a soccer game, and then thanksgivinginess. And tomorrow I leave for London for a Globalization Justice conference and I'm totally not ready to leave yet. But oh well.

I did want to say a little something, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, though. During dinner, we did the whole go around the table and say what you are thankful for thing. Obviously, everyone is thankful that we have the opportunity to be here in Lyon studying and experiencing all of these wonderful things. What I had to add, though, was (a) I am thankful for my great roommate (who was sitting right next to me) and (b) I am really thankful that we have the resources to stay in touch with people back home. THis has been especially important to me, what with things being so difficult back home. I can't imagine going through all of this without being able to get emails from my mom every couple of days keeping me updated, and emails from my absolutely fantastic friends (especially big shout out to G-G, who has been great at keeping my spirits up and letting me freak out to her via email/AIM), and being able to talk to people on AIM, and even being able to talk to people on the phone every once in a while. Seriously, I can't say this for sure, but I think if I wasn't so well plugged in back home, I would be having a really difficult time here. I guess that could be seen as a negative thing, but I think with the facility of it all, I really am having an amazing immersion experience and doing the France thing while still keeping my strong connections to home, and I am infinitely thankful for that. My mom keeps reminding me to keep counting my blessings, and I really am SO lucky and SO blessed. Sometimes it's hard to recognize it when I'm worrying about things back home, or not knowing if campus will be open for the test I am supposed to have in 9 hours (seriously...I'm pretty sure I have a better sense of what's going on back home than I do of what's going on with these student strikes), or dealing with the millions of paperwork details required by French bureaucracy, or trying to get everything done on time, but when I stop for a minute and realize where I am and what I'm doing and all of the resources I have (even though sometimes I feel kind of lost in it all), I really do realize just how very blessed I am.

So there you go. That's what I'm thankful for...plus the people who take the time to read this blog and put up with the rambling and silliness of my writing.

That being said, I really need to get back to the reality of leaving tomorrow and not knowing exactly where I am going...and maybe studying some portuguese...

*bisous* and TONS of love

Power Rangers!!

I really should be asleep, because apparantly I have a job interview in 8 hours...but whatever. Lots of thoughts, not very tired, therefore I shall stay up. I just decided that I'm not very good at this whole travel blog thing...or maybe blog thing in general. My brain just does not hold a train of thought very well at all. And, instead of telling some contiguous story about something that happened to me, I have all these really short stories that I want to tell that don't really have anything to do with each other except that they are things that have happened in my life lately or things I have thought about (can you tell this blog is going to be like that?)

First of all, when I was walking home tonight, there was this group of people that we passed and two of them were dressed vaguely like power rangers, and one of them ran past us making strange noises. And then we passed the rest of them, and the second guy in a power rangers costume was like, "he's not with us". It was good for a laugh.

I just realized that this post is completely capable of being a contiguous story, because all of the stuff I want to write about basically revolves around today, but I'm just not in a state of mind to write it that way, so it's a little helter skelter (which reminds me, my friend Maxime LOVES to sing Beatles songs all through my constitutional law class, whih is pretty much the coolest thing ever. That kid never ceases to make me laugh).

Today, my roommate invited a couple friends over and we had a delicious vietnamese/taiwanese lunch which was prepared by all 5 of us smashed into our tiny kitchen and it was AMAZING. Wei Ching's friend is from Vietnam, so she came over to make nem, which are fried spring rolls, and then Wei Ching made soup and...BOBA. It was so exciting, although she kind of hadn't cooked it all the way, but I didn't even care. For those of you who don't know, boba are these little balls of tapioca, and you put them in drinks and they are just really amazing and I love them. It's actually a specialty from Taiwan, but has gotten pretty popular in the states, but basically does not exist here. Except that Wei Ching's friend had some from Taiwan. YES. Basically, lunch was a giant success and made for a really great afternoon.

EVERYTHING smells like cigarettes. Seriously, every time I go out I come home reeking of cigarette smoke. It's in my hair and my clothes and it's just icky. Even after a nice long shower and clean PJs, I can still smell it. Berk! I cannot WAIT until January when the smoking ban goes into effect (sorry Napoleon, I know you are anti smoking bans, and as much as I love you, I do not appreciate having my entire wardrobe smell like smoke).

Despite the unfortunate odor that comes from going out, I have been having a lot of fun on those occasions when I go out. Tonight, I went out with Wei Ching, her friend Mathilde, and Mathilde's friend, whose name I never completely got. Anyway, we just went to this bar to hang out and have a beer and watch the soccer game (France v Ukraine...which ended in a tie and was really a pathetic, very uneventful game). It was a nice little girl's night out, and I think it will become a weekly tradition. Yay!

OH! They are opening a Starbucks in Lyon soon. Honestly, I am not sure how I feel about this, but I do have to say that I really miss big lattes and cafe's with big comfy couches. Silly, I know, but it's one very american thing that I miss. I mean, there is only so much pleasure that you can get out of a cup of coffee that is gone in two sips. Even if it's really good coffee.

Um...I think that is all of the discongruousness that I can think of for now. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!!

*MUAH*

mmmmmargaritas!

Ok, there are about a million thoughts swimming around in my head (partly because they get to swim around in tequila...that makes my thoughts more active and swimmy), so I'm going to go list style and hope I catch them all. Sorry if they aren't in a very understandable order. I'm going with whatever pops into my head first.

--It is SO much warmer in Lyon than in Clermont-Ferrand, where I was visiting my friend Dia this weekend. While I have said that I can handle pretty much any kind of weather that doesn't include wind, I think I will take Lyon's windiness over C-F's icy frozen death.

--It was really good for me, emotionally, to go to C-F and to visit Dia. Partially, it was good for me to get out of Lyon (and especially to get out of my room) and do something new, but it was also really good to see an old friend who knows me really well still. It's funny the way you can pick up with someone after two years of being apart and just be able to be great friends again.

--My dad called me today and it made me SOOO happy!!! And I got to talk to my sister, which is always quite an experience, because, while she is an avid talker, there aren't always full sentences, and it doesn't always make a ton of sense. My dad did say that she has been working on her three-syllable words, namely exercise (and jumping jacks, which she is a big fan of) and chocolate. Sounds to me like two important words. Especially chocolate, but I suppose if that is a word you are going to pick up at the age of 3, it's probably a good idea to do some jumping jacks too. I totally adore that kid, and I hate that I really only see her a couple weeks out of the year. But that was a really exciting thing to come home to this afternoon.

--I spent the weekend talking to Dia about how much we miss mexican food and margaritas, and then this morning I got a message from my friend Katie inviting me to dinner with her and some of our friends and her parents, who are visiting from California. And we went to a mexican restaurant (the same one I went to a while ago with Florence...only a different location) and drank margaritas and ate mexican food. I maintain that their salsa is terrible and there were no refried beans and it was not at all spicey, but the guacamole was decent, and the food itself is actually quite good. And it was just a fun night all around. Very homey. Although I do plan to hit up every good mexican restaurant I can come up with as soon as I get home.

--The French are still striking. I had to take buses to and from C-F this weekend (although I made it no matter what, just like I promised) because the rail workers are still on strike, and Lyon 2 (where I take capoeira and portuguese) is still blocked, at least until Wednesday, when there is going to be another meeting to decide what to do.

--In 4 days I will be in LONDON!

--I really need to buy some wintery clothes, namely leg warmers (yes mom, leg warmers...I know I always used to hate them, but my legs get cold under my jeans...and I need them for the crazy jumping down to our knees stuff that my jazz teacher has decided would be fun) and tights and more long-sleeved shirts and more scarves and hats and gloves and quite possibly some boots. I really am not prepared for this cold weather at all.

--3 margaritas makes me very sleepy, so I shall stop here. Goodnight!!

*bisous*

Wind SUCKS

It is officially COLD. 18 years of winter in the desert (even with last year's 3 feet of snow) has done nothing to prepare me, much less my wardrobe, for being here. And it's only November. This morning, walking the 3 blocks to the laundrette, I almost froze to death. And the viciously cold wind didn't even slow down before ripping through my fleece jacket, long sleeve shirt, and tank top. Really, I think I could handle the cold if the wind weren't moving it around all the time (aren't things in motion supposed to warm up??)

To complain just a little bit more before I move on, the railworkers are still striking and I am gonna be a very unhappy camper if I can't get out of Lyon to visit my friend, Dia, this weekend.

I have been really unmotivated to write lately. For one thing, I guess not much has been going on here over the past couple of days, and for another, things have been kind of rough. I don't want to go into it, but I will say that I am a little frustrated by the fact that life is continuing on without me back home, and it makes it hard for me to focus on being here, no matter how many times people tell me that I should...that I shouldn't dwell on something I can't change, and that it's going to be better, or at least ok. I'm not very good at accepting change in my life at times like these.

So there you go. No exciting Francey stories for now. Basically, I've just been doing the same old thing...going to class, avoiding studying with every ounce of myself, spending a lot of time at home because it's too cold to spend too much time outside, making/eating yummy food, watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls online, and dealing with homesickness and grief...and trying to pick out and focus on the beauty.

The French are doing what they do best...

...striking (VERY important French vocab word: grève).

The rail workers are striking against the conditions for retirement, students are striking because they don't want universities to be independently funded, and apparantly a number of other unions are preparing to strike as well (for example, we have been warned of possible power outages due to the strikes), as far as I can tell for similar reasons as the railworkers.

I really don't know what to think. I was talking today with Laurie, the director of the Centre Oregon, and later with Barbara, who runs the Penn program, and both of them seemed pretty frustrated by the student strikes, even though they more or less agree with the precedent. As Laurie said, though, really all they end up doing is hurting themselves, because they miss out on classes that they will have to make up at some point.

It's quite an experience to be here with all of this going on, and tomorrow should be interesting...the students are going to block the train stations in solidarity with the railworkers (whose strike starts on Wednesday) and I'm sure there will be protests and the like going on this whole week. I will post more when I have a better idea of how this whole thing is working out. And hopefully I will manage to form more of an opinion than "grrr...I need to take a train this weekend to go visit my friend. What the hell french railworkers??" or "well, I'm glad that I don't have to take my portuguese midterm this week, but I don't think I'm going to want to study any more next week than I do right now"

Anyway, that is the state of things in France right now...or at least what I know of the state of things. In my personaly life, I had a fabulous weekend, and ended up hanging out with two girls that I met in the TOEFL class, so I'm really glad I did that. I had a total blast that included coming home at 3 am two nights in a row, teaching Europeans american drinking games, listening to Manu Chao, eating bulgarian cheese, really drunk guys dancing on a flaming bar, a pirate themed bar, a guy who reminded me of Hugh Grant, and riding a bike home in the rain. I think that is all the REALLY important stuff. Oh! And can't forget the piercing party witha couple girls from Penn, which was followed by some really delicious (and expensive) hot chocolate. And now I am back in reality, and I spent the day avoiding going to the library because I'm really not even entirely sure what I need to be doing, but I feel like I should be studying because I have 4 tests in the next 4 weeks, two of which will constitute my ENTIRE grade for they classes they are in. All I ended up accomplishing today was buying flash cards and a few other schooly supplies that I was in need of, and making a zillion portuguese flashcards.

Oh! Speaking of going shopping today (this is totaly ridiculous, but it made me happy), I also bought a tea ball that is in the shape of a tiny tea pot and comes with a little tray that you can set it on. I've been wanting to buy loose leaf tea lately, but was having a really hard time finding a tea ball, and I finally found this one and it was so cute...I just had to.

So there you go...and now I need to go to sleep because the slightly elitest political science students are not striking tomorrow, so I still have 7 hours worth of class. Yay.

Bisous.

beauty

I have to keep this short because I am going out with some friends tonight, so, as usual I am forgoing all of the things that I have been meaning to write about all day (but I was too busy sleeping in and getting my cartilage pierced again). There was a moment today that I really wanted to write about though, which I would like to dedicate to my mamacita, who, in one of the most touching and wonderful emails I've ever gotten, reminded me that spending time in nature helps to heal emotional pain, which I've been struggling with a lot lately.

Unfortunately, it has been entirely too cold to spend significant amounts of time outside, but while I was walking to the metro today, I had a moment of peace. Often, when going to this particular metro stop, I take the tram because it's faster and easier, but on the weekend the wait between trams is pretty long, and I didn't feel like waiting, so I decided to walk. I have to cross the Rhône river to get to the metro, and I love crossing the bridge because you get a really nice view of the river and the buildings along the quais. Today, what with the weather being crappy, it looked very hard and kind of industrial, which was accentuated by construction. At first, my thought was, ugh...but I stopped to look up the river and realized that it was really beautiful. There are trees all along either side of the river, and they are all a really gorgeous amber fall color, and the whole thing was like the perfect fall/almost winter day. It was almost like looking at a sepia-toned photograph because of the colors of the trees, and because everything was sort of washed out because there wasn't any sunlight (only the light filtering through LOTS of clouds.

Silly me, I forgot to charge my camera, so I couldn't take a picture. Although I kind of doubt I could have captured the moment because a lot of the beauty was in my realization that, if you just look for it, the beauty--natural beauty--is there, even in the middle of the city. It was a very "American Beauty" sort of moment.

Anyway, I'm off. Just needed to write that.

Bisous.

In the words of Ice Cube, today was a good day

After staying up late watching a movie last night, I had a grasse matinée sort of morning (ie I slept in), although I was planning on running some errands this morning. Oh well. Then I went to Part Dieu--the ginormous mall in Lyon--to meet Florence, the girl from the TOEFL class. While I was standing outside waiting, and hoping I was at the right entrance, this girl came up to me and asked if I was Terra. Turns out she was Florence's friend, who was also having lunch with us. So we chatted for a little while waiting for Florence. She was so nice! Then, when Florence showed up, we headed into the mall, which was packed, strangely enough, being Thursday afternoon. Claudine suggested this Mexican restaurant, and we headed there.

As a side note, I haven't gone to any Mexican restaurants in Lyon since I've been here because I had a bad experience 3 years ago in Paris, and because, as most of my friends know, I am kind of snob when it comes to Mexican food (it happens when you grow up in New Mexico...deal with it). But I figured that I would go for it because Florence and Claudine seemed into it. As it turns out, it wasn't terrible, with the exception of the salsa, which I'm pretty sure consisted solely of tomatos and sugar (why? I have no idea). Anyway, I had a quesadilla, which had cheddar cheese! Anyway, all around, it was a successful experience after I made the decision to lower my expectations on the food a little bit. And it was really nice to just chat in a "girlfriends" kind of atmosphere.

After lunch, Claudine had to go home, and Florence and I went to the Centre Oregon office to check out the course catalogs and ask Laurie some questions about studying in the states. As it turns out, if she makes it into the study abroad program, she will probably be at OSU because it fits her field of study, which is kind of a bummer cuz I was kinda hoping she would be at U of O, but that's ok. So we were there for a while looking through the course catalogs, which were pretty overwhelming for her, because it is such a different system, and afterward we came back to my apartment to hang out a little more and eat carrot cake. She is really sweet and I'm so glad I met her!! Even though I have a number of people in my classes that I talk to and get along well with, it's really been kind of frustrating that outside of class I've been feeling more or less friendless (with the exception of Wei and other americans, who are all way cool). But I think she and I could become very good friends. Yay!

I really should go to capoeira tonight, but I really just have not been in the mood this week (I kinda ditched my jazz class yesterday...oops) plus it's a really late class that lasts until 10:20, and it's pretty far away, so I think I'll just chill for tonight and go tomorrow night. Maybe I'll even spend some time studying portuguese, since I haven't had class in two weeks and we have a test next week...oh wait, my book STILL hasn't friggin arrived. grr!

So, um...the past couple of days...yesterday, like I said, I ditched my dance class because on Tuesday night I went to a soirée put on for the international students and the IEP (the political science school). It was a lot of fun, and quickly turned into a packed dance party in the very small space of the bar we were in. At first, they were playing rap and reggaeton (!! I was SO happy that there were some students from Mexico there to offer up their iPods), so I was a happy camper, but it evolved into too loud techno and too many people squished into too little space for Terra, so I left around midnight. It took me a while to get home because the metros/tramways don't run very often late at night, and by the time I actually made it to sleep, it was almost 1:30, and when I woke up the next morning, I was very much not in the mood to dance...slash deal with my dance teacher who always kind of borders on too much energy and too loud. So I was sitting in the kitchen drinking tea, and Wei came in and started making sushi (well, technically, maki) and we were chatting and I just decided not to go because I was quite content helping with the sushi-making process.

Then, yesterday afternoon, I decided to make carrot cake, which I have been craving like crazy. Unfortunately, cream cheese doesn't exist here, so I had to fudge the frosting a little bit, and I think the batter was a little too liquidy because it came out a little strange, but all in all, it tasted pretty darn good, if I do myself. And it was successful with everyone but the boys (Paul and Mathias). I can't complain, though...I didn't like carrot cake when I was little either.

Anyway, that's my life over the past couple of days. Things are definitely going better on the homesickness front. I talked to my mom on the phone for a while the other day, which helped immensely, and I've been keep myself much more busy, which helps keep the sadness at bay. Oh, and I have to make a shout-out to GG (you know who you are...I'm totally stealing Napoleon's use of codenames in his blog cuz it makes me feel cool) who has been sending me music daily the past couple of days and it totally makes my day every time. Love ya girl!

And I'm off.

Gros bisous.

intellectualisticness

I have seriously thought of about amillion things I wanted to blog about today, but I was busy pretty much all day. And then, after dinner, when I had planned on writing (about a whole new subject from all the ones I had come up with during the day), Florence invited me to watch a movie with her. Slash she wanted to use my computer to watch it cuz apparantly the DVD player is brokeded. Anyway, long story short, it's now almost 1 am, so I'm going to bed and I hope that I can retain all my thoughts from the day for tomorrow. Or at least the important ones.

But, before sleepy-time, I did want to share something quick that the movie made me think of (we watched a documentary on Salvador Allende, btw, in case you were wondering). Since being here, I've watched a number of movies in Spanish with French subtitles, and I have to say my brain is always totally overwhelmed by them. I know enough Spanish that part of my brain tries to concentrate on understanding what I hear, but at the same time I have to read the subtitles to fill in the gaps, and the subtitles are in French, so I really have to read them and think about what I am seeing. It's an intense mental workout, let me tell you.

Anyway, that being said, I am going to bed because my brain is very much over all the mental strain.

Bonne nuit!

pick-up line

--Did you know that your father is a robbery?
--No, I didn't. Why do you say that?
--Because he stole all the stars from the skies and put them in your beautiful eyes.

Awww. I especially love that he said robbery instead of robber. It's the cute french way of being just a little bit off when they speak english...makes everything that much more endearing. Pretty much made my day.

so THAT'S how to make friends in France...

So I'm realizing that my skills with the English language (what with being a native speaker and all) can be a useful way to make friends. I'm clearly not abouve exploiting people's desire to speak my language as a way to buy their friendship.

Like I said a couple of posts back, I went to the TOEFL class and had received an email from one of the girls. Well, we are having lunch together on Thursday and seems excited to hang out and chat. And I am too! She seems really nice and interesting and has very good taste in music, so that is a plus too. And, even better, she will likely be at U of O next year, so we can keep in touch over the summer and I can pay her back by introducing her to my friends and inviting her to hang out with us...and I'll have someone to speak French with. Really it's just win-win all over the place. It was kind of awkward at the time, but Barbara's stressing that it's really hard for us American kids to make friends may have paid off. Woot. Also, today before my capoeira class started, one of the girls asked me if I would mind helping her with her english because she is also preparing for the TOEFL (and at Lyon 2 there is no prep class. Bummer). So anyway, I gave her my number and told her to give me a call and I would be happy to help her out.

On a similar and amusing note, a couple of weeks ago in my constitutional law class, one of the guys came up to me and sat down, and in a kind of messy mélange of English and French, explained to me that he had a pick-up line in English that he wanted to use on me: "Has your father ever told you that you are like a robbery?" That's how it started but I didn't get to hear the end, because he got all self-conscious about his English and getting it right, and he told me he would do it for me another time. I'm still waiting. The French really do love to show off whatever English skills they have whenever they get the chance. At first it can be kinda frustrating because, well, I'm here to learn French, not awkwardly worded English. But then I realized that many of them wont have the opportunity to study in the states and they need to practice too. Plus it's totally adorable. I *heart* English with a french accent.

If you can't tell, I'm doing much better. I spent the morning running errands and then came home and was kind of sad and pathetic and bummy and then I took a cat-nap with Chagall and went to capoeira, which really does make me feel loads better. I was planning to go to a second capoeira class at the studio in Villeurbanne, but I ran into some friends on my way home and we ended up standing around chatting about vacations and how to get our fixes of american food (apparantly it is possible to find cheddar cheese and even decent tortillas, which is cool, although I kind of enjoy making them now...tortillas that is) and then I was going to be late and my feet were killing me, so I came home and took a shower and had a nice salad and a glass of wine and have just been kind of relaxing waiting for the host family to get home so I can share the cookies from Annecy with them. What's left of the cookies, anyway. I've been eating them a lot.

I've been talking to a few other people, and I think everyone is kind of in a period of serious homesickness and questioning the intelligence of deciding to spend a whole year away from home. The initial novelty of being here is kind of starting to wear off for everyone and we are all realizing that it's not just a vacation. That we really are here to live our lives for a year and all the differences that we joked about at first become really frustrating. Even little stuff like not being able to make Mexican food just right because pinto beans don't exist and not being able to go to Target to get all the things we want and the fact that the dollar sucks so bad right now, so shopping is kind of depressing. I'm sure we will all come out of it soon. I know it will help me to see people from home, and I have a number of people that are coming to visit me or will be in Europe sometime in the future...just making plans has brightened my spirits a little bit.

So, even though I've been in a bit of a slump lately, I realize that life goes on and it's time to start counting my blessings instead of worrying about the negative stuff. Easier said than done at times, but that's my mission for the moment.

*MUAH*

a short message of love

I don't really have much to say because I've been a bit of a bum the past couple of days. Mostly because I've been feeling very homesick and lethargic. So basically this post is a "dear everyone who reads this, I miss you" sort of post.

Also, I'm realizing that there are about a million things I should have accomplished during this past week of vacation that I didn't...because of the lethargic and homesick bit. I always kind of start doing something and then it gets too complicated and I end up doing random internet surfing...basically looking for ANY excuse to escape whatever is being difficult. It's ridiculous, really.

Seriously, though, modern society is SO complicated. I have spent like 3 hours trying to figure out the best way to go to London for this Globalization and Justice conference without spending way too much money, and in a way that fits into my schedule. My head is seriously spinning and I'm still not entirely sure what my plan is. And that stresses me out even more. And then I do sill things like trying to find out how much it would cost me to go home for a week, even though I know that, while that sounds nice, it is more or less out of the question and probably would make things worse. And then I get more homesick. And now I'm gong to bed in an attempt to get away from all of this.

I will try to write tomorrow after my capoeira class(es) because that always puts me in a much better mood.

Back to the whole point of this post...to my amazing family and friends back home who read this, I love you so much more than I can express right now and I miss you like crazy.

Best sobering up method EVER:

Excercise.

Seriously. 30 minutes on a bike and you're good to go.

Disclaimer: Do not use this method if you start out too drunk to ride a bike and make sure you know where you are going before you hit the road.

It doesn't have to look pretty as long as it tastes good

That is Wei's and my new slogan. We have been cooking a lot and, while the outcome isn't always the most beautiful thing, it has all been very tasty. This weekend, we went to a soirée at one of Wei's friend's houses, and we made a quiche that kind of fell apart when it came out of the pan, but everyone really liked it, so it was a success. The next day, we made nem, which are spring rolls. They kind of fell apart in the frying process, but we ate them anyway and they were very tasty. Today we made fresh spring rolls (the not fried kind). They were even kind of pretty, and VERY yummy. I think they are probably one of my favorite foods, and I've been missing eating them a lot lately, so it was good to have them. Also, Wei made flan today, which is a little over-cooked on top and a little too liquidy on the inside, but it tasted very yummy. Hence the new catch-phrase.

On the not ugly food side, yesterday we found the most amazing cookie store. It was like heaven. You picked out a little decorative tin and then there were bins with about 15 different kinds of cookies and you got to fill your little tin with whatever cookies you wanted. A little pricey, but totally worth it. And they had samples. While I was standing in line, I got to taste one of the kinds of cookies, these chocolate "olives", and this other little candy thing. I think it was marzipan, but I'm not entirely sure. On top of all the deliciousness, it was the cutest little store. Which fit the town it was in. We spent the day in Annecy, which is about 2 hours from Lyon, near the border with Switzerland.

After some difficulties with buses and trains, we (Wei, my friend Robert, and myself) got there around one. We wandered around the vieille ville, which was a couple narrow streets full of shops and restaurants. There was one restaurant that was getting ready for a Halloween party and they had three ginormous jack-o-lanterns outside. Then there was a western store, with tons of different cowboy boots and a window full of belt buckles. It was a nice little splash of home in the midst of a little french mountain village. I was kind of sad that it was closed. We also checked out the chateau-turned museum, which was not terribly exciting. Then we headed down to the lake, which is gorgeous. We were told that we should do the paddle boats, but all the paddle boat places were closed (probably because it was FREEZING). So we just kind of wandered around taking touristy pictures and enjoying the beautiful views. Then, we found the amazing cookie store, and then met up with some German ERASMUS students from Lyon who had the same idea to day trip to Annecy. We wandered around some more with them before making our way back to the train station and coming home. And that was my day yesterday. It was a really nice little trip.

I'm kind of sad that I didn't do anything Halloweeny for Halloween, though. I really love Halloween, but the only places who celebrate it here are nightclubs, and I wasn't really up for going out after spending the day wandering around Annecy. A couple of my friends are having a Halloween party tomorrow, which should be fun, but I have no idea what to do for a costume. I usually raid my closet and hit up thrift stores and come up with something, but my wardrobe is much more limited here than it is at home and thrift stores aren't nearly as easy to come by. Plus, it's a lot harder to get into the spirit when you aren't surrounded by halloween decorations and there aren't mounds of pumpkins outside all the grocery stores. I definitely feel like Halloween was just another day, which is kind of sad.

Moving on, though...today is Toussaint, which inFrance is a jour férié, which means that everyone gets the dayand most stores are closed. For that reason, I stayed home and was kind of restless. I wrote a while back that Florence likes to rearrange the furniture a lot, and that it made me want to do the same. As long as I had the day to myself, and I needed to clean a little anyway, I decided to go for it. So I spent the morning redecorating. I like the way my room is now. It feels a little bit smaller, because there isn't a big space in the middle, but smaller in a good, cozy way. I think I'm going to like it.

Lastly, on Monday, I went to talk with a TOEFL class. TOEFL is the international English exam that people have to take it they want to study or work in the states. The director for the Penn program at Lyon 2 teaches the class, and she asked me if I would come talk to her students about Oregon. It was really cool to go in and talk to them. Eneryone was really nice and they asked me questions about life in the states and the differences between school here and there. I gave them all my email address after the class in case they had any other questions, and on Tuesday I got an email from one of the girls who said we should hang out sometime so that we can talk more. She seems really nice. I'm definitely glad I went and talked with the class, and Barbara (the teacher) invited me to come back and do it again sometime because she gets a new group of students every couple of months. Yay!

Ok, sorry this post is kind of random and jumps around a lot. That seems to be my life lately.

Bisous and Happy Toussaint!