Catching up

Hello all! Sorry I’ve been so useless at this whole blogging thing lately. What with exams, trying to figure out my schedule for next semester, planning a week and a half of traveling, and everything in France being on sale, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to sit down and write. Plus, I don’t even know where to start. Plus, I’ve noticed that I sometimes blog when I’m trying to procrastinate schoolwork, and I haven’t actually had much of that lately…or at least none that could be procrastinated any longer. So now I’m procrastinating translating this document for someone, and I’ve got a good chunk of time to try to put the last couple weeks into words.

First of all, while I have the time and because I promised I would try to recap…

Paris: The Reader’s Digest Version.

~~On Thursday, we got on a train and headed to Paris. After checking in to the hostel and dropping off bags, went straight to the Ile de la Cité area because that’s where mostly everything is, and because we decided that the boat tour of the Seine would make a good introduction for Flippers. So we decided to do the tour later in the evening so we could see everything lit up, and then wandered around for a while, mostly enjoying the fabulous window displays of Paris, but also doing some touristing and souvenir buying. We ended up eating dinner in this little Italian restaurant where my mom, grandpa, and I had eaten almost 8 years ago the first time I was in Paris. That made me really happy. Then, we did the boat tour, which was cold, windy, and absolutely gorgeous. The Eiffel Tower was glittering for the first ten minutes of the tour, off in the distance (it does that every hour on the hour after dark…a sight to see, let me tell you), and all of the buildings were lit up and wonderful. It was the third time I’ve done that tour, and I don’t think it will ever get old. Anyway, after the tour, we wandered around in search of a good café to get some hot chocolate and ended up in this pretty chic place in the Latin Quarter where a little jazz band was playing. We drank overpriced hot chocolate and enjoyed some good music before heading back to the hostel and falling into bed.
~~Friday morning, we got up bright and early so as to miss the lines at the Eiffel Tower. Success! We hardly even had to wait to buy tickets to climb the first two levels of the tower. On the first level, my camera had a break down, which sent me into a bit of a panic, but we continued to enjoy the tower and the views and the trek up the 700ish stairs. To ease my panic, when we left the Eiffel Tower, we went on a mission to find a camera store to see if they could figure out if the memory card in my camera was totally shot or just minorly challenged. Turns out it was pretty shot, but they were able to save most of the pictures on it…for a price. That being done, we hit the Champs Elysées and were quickly sucked in by the Sephora, which is actually a total make-up superstore, not just Sephora. Two hours and 100 euros later, we headed back to the hostel to get ready for Cabaret. Before the show, we went on a free tour of Montmartre, which was really great. Montmartre is a part of Paris that I’m really kind of fascinated by, but have never really spent much time on. I mean, it was an artist’s haven—home to many great artists, including my favorite painter, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec—and it’s where Amélie was set/filmed. Plus it’s pretty and there are a gazillion sex shops. What more could you ask for? Unfortunately, we had to leave the tour a little early to make it to Cabaret on time, which ended up being totally worth it because it was an amazing show. The dancing and acting were both spectacular, and they actually did a pretty good job of translating the songs into French (good enough that I bought the CD, in fact). Flippers lost a decent amount of the story because he doesn’t understand French, but he enjoyed the whole production enough that it didn’t matter much. After that, it was back to the hostel and bed for us cuz we were exhausted.
~~Saturday we did the early morning thing again to beat the lines at the Musée d’Orsay, which I much prefer to the Louvre. I mean, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Degas, Renoir…need I say more? Plus all the statues and a display of funky and awesome furniture, which Flippers and I thoroughly enjoyed. And the museum store, which we raided quite successfully. After the museum, we went to Luxembourg Gardens and people-watched and ate really disappointing crêpes before stopping off at the Pompidou Center and then going back to Montmartre to eat at the Café Deux Moulins, the café where Amélie was filmed. We had planned on having lunch, but ended up just splitting crème brulée (it was heaven) and tea/coffee. Last but not least, we toured the sex shops, and were disappointed to find that they were all really skeazy and not terribly exciting. I know, I know, what do you expect from sex shops, but I guess we just hoped for more considering it was Paris. Oh well…at least it proved distracting enough that we realized we were going to be late for our train if we didn’t hurry. So we metro’d/ran around Paris like madmen to pick up our bags at the hostel and then get to the train station panting, but just in time. We both crashed out on the train, and then got home, exhausted and gross, but very happy.

Whew…and that’s just the Reader’s Digest version…let’s just say it was a packed three days. And now, the Reader’s Digest version of the last two weeks…

~~Sales. In France in January, everything goes on sale. It’s government regulated or something that for two weeks, all the stores have to put their stuff on sale, and shopping is madness, but it’s possible to get some really good deals. I’m not a huge shopper, and I was kind of all shopped out after having Flippers here, but I have taken advantage of the sales to buy a couple fun things for myself, as well as some presents.

~~Exams. I worked pretty hard to finish my 10+ page essay for my Constitutional Law exam. I ended up writing it on environmental protections in the Constitution, which was a topic that I found interesting enough to make researching/writing the essay not completely miserable. I’m just glad it’s over, though. I also had my Portuguese exam…it was what you would expect from a beginning language class. I think I did fine. I still don’t know what my grades are in my classes, but I am at least confident that I didn’t fail any of them. This whole studying in France thing has really pushed me to accept that it’s ok if I’m not a straight-A student forever. I mean, grades are important and I would like to do well, but there’s only so much I can do in a completely unfamiliar system.

~~Trip planning. I’m leaving on Monday for Edinburgh, then going to Amsterdam, and then to Copenhagen. All the planning was pretty last minute, but my friend and I were pretty determined to make it work. And we did. I’m really excited. I don’t think I ever would have made it to Scotland if Katie (I can’t think of a good nickname right now…) hadn’t suggested it, but I think it will be fun anyway, and Copenhagen was a random decision. I think it’s going to be a really interesting little voyage.

~~Scheduling for next semester. Picking classes in this country is no walk in the park. French students don’t really have much choice in the classes they take. They pick their major and sometimes a concentration, and then the university determines what classes they will take and they get a schedule in the mail. Not so much for us. So slowly but surely I picked out classes that looked somewhat interesting and got them to work together time-wise, but then I had to work in my job, which was a huge pain, but I think I figured out something that should work. I came close to quitting, because this whole job is proving to be more difficult and frustrating than it should be, but really like the kids, so I’m going to do my best not to give up.

Um…I think that’s it for now. Thanks for making it through such a long update. I probably won’t be blogging again until I get back from my trip (and then hopefully I wont put it off this song again).

Biz.

Some deep thoughts

I'm in something of a post-break, back to work, exhausted slump at the moment, which is why I haven't gotten around to resuming the Paris trip or blogging in general.  I'm kind of feeling overwhelmed by things getting back underway after the chill break I had.  And a whole new round of homesickness is setting in now that Flippers and his northern New Mexico accent and attitude have left.  

I also had a strangely shocking realization the other day.  Strange in the fact that I felt shocked...the realization itself wasn't really all that strange or shocking in itself.  A bunch of my friends in their various blogs/myspaces/etc have been doing this "wrapping up of 2007" thing.  This is not a practice that is terribly appealing to me personally, because...well, I guess it's just not.  I don't really want to try to get into the why at the moment.  But, as i was reading these little wrap-ups, I was struck by just how much I have been missing in my friends lives over the past few months.  By just how much the rest of the world is continuing to grow and change.  I thought about this a lot before my grandpa died because it was really hard for me to accept that that aspect of my life was continuing without me being there to witness it, but it was always focused on my grandpa.  Now I realized that all sorts of other things are happening without my being there to witness them.

A couple of my friends started new jobs.  My best friend's dad decided to retire and move to Australia and then hasn't quite gotten around to it yet.  And she may or may not have to find a new house.  My little sister turned three.  A whole term worth of pocket shows have gone unseen by me.  My friend played a whore in Threepenny Opera and I didn't get to see it.  One of my cousins is about to have a baby and another got engaged.  People have traveled.  Relationships have come and gone.  Kisses have been shared and stolen.  Huge life decisions have been made.  Small life decisions have been made.  Friendships have bloomed and fizzled out.  Hundreds of hours of gossip have gone un-gossiped.  Some of my friends will be graduating from high school and college in May and will be moving on to new chapters in their lives.  I still have yet to see my old roomie's "new" house and it wont be new anymore by the time I see it.  Bunches of my friends in Oregon are living in new houses and apartments that I haven't gotten to see, and who knows if i will ever get to see them, depending on if they stay in those places or not next year.  One of my friends in NM moved into a new apartment.  A close friend and "sister" of mine was in and out of the hospital with strange health problems and a broken pelvis.  People have gotten piercings and quite possibly tattoos (although I don't know of any off the top of my head) and changed their hair.

I could go on and on coming up with the things that I have heard about in passing or learned via facebook stalking or read in emails or heard on the phone...ok, so I guess I'm not completely out of the loop.  But then there are all the things that I'm sure I know nothing about yet...and that I may or may not even hear about.  And all the small "insignificant" things that you know about your friends when you see or talk to them every day, but that don't come up in the weekly/monthly/etc update that you get from them when you have time to call or e-mail each other.  Discussions about interesting lectures or experiences.  Cuddling in a friends bed gossiping about boys and school and whatever else it is we girls gossip about.

Wow...I'm depressing myself a little bit.  Which is silly.  I really wouldn't give the experience I'm having up for anything.  I mean, I, too, have a new piercing, a new haircut, new gossip, new experiences.  Interesting things happen to me every day and I don't have time to tell people about them all.  Many will go unshared because they get lost in the shuffle.  But that doesn't mean they haven't all changed me at least a little bit.  And in a way, I guess I'm getting on with my life without the direct supervision of a lot of the people that normally play a really important role in my daily life just like the rest of the world is getting on without me.  But I can know that all I want and still feel a little bit like I'm missing out.  And I can appreciate what I have and still wish deep down that I were part of all those other things too, right?  As long as I don't forget to appreciate what I have first.  

Anyway, I've kind of been letting myself drown in the things that I'm missing and in the things that I need to be focusing on/getting done lately, which I know isn't really a good thing, but sometimes it happens.  And sometimes you have to let yourself be in a slump for a little while before you can pick your way out of it.  So I will leave today behind soon and go to bed and accept the fact that I didn't work on my paper or send out those important emails or book that flight or whatever.  And tomorrow I'll make a list and prioritize and all that good stuff and have a cup of piñon coffee and get back on track.

And then maybe I will be able to catch up with the Paris update before I go on another trip.  hehe

Biz.

Whirlwind

I don't even know how I'm going to get to blogging about everything that has happened in the last week, much less when I shall have time to attempt such a feat, considering Flippers is here for two more days and then I have a 10-15 page paper to research and write, a portuguese final to study for, lesson plans to prepare, a trip to plan, and a friend of mine invited me to go skiing with him next weekend.  Oh my.  Also, somewhere in there I have to recover from the craziness that has been the last week.  I'm just a little bit overwhelmed.  

But, I wanted to throw in a little blog here while we have some siesta time before going to the park and Fourvière, the two main lyonnais things that Flippers has yet to see.  Up close at least.  In a nutshell, this past week has been a blast.  The new years party was absolutely fabulous.  I had been all worried because Flo and friends are all about 18, and I didn't really know what to expect, and I didn't want to drag Flippers to a lame party on new years eve in France.  But it turned out to be a great success.  Sleeping Beauty/Prince Philip costumes were way fun, and everyone else's costumes were great as well.  We ate yummy food, danced, had Disney-related conversation, drank champagne, and basically just rang in the new year having a blast.  

After spending the first in bed watching movies and recovering from the festivities and the sardine-like sleeping arrangement in some random bed at the house where the party was, Flippers and I took to exploring and more shopping.  He is a really bad influence on me.  We also saw a Guignol show (lyonnais puppet show...great fun) before blasting off to Paris.  That's a trip I'm going to not try to tackle right now, but I will say that we had a complete blast and it was a packed 3 days.  There are lots of stories to tell, and I will try to get to them soon.

Anyway, we made it back more or less in one piece, although we are both really tired and kind of sore...as are our bank accounts.  It's amazing how easy it is to spend money in a place like Paris.  Really.  But it was all well-worth it.  

I hope you all had wonderful New Years Eve celebrations and I hope the thought of getting back into the post-holiday swing of things isn't too daunting like it is for me.  More soon!!

Biz.