And the List Might Be Longer Than I Thought

Ce n'est pas possible:

• to deposit bills and coins in the same envelope (or plastic bag, rather) at the bank
• for the bank to post said cash deposit
• ergo, for the landlady to stop harrassing the old tennant

Also, c'est impossible for the RER train to run without certain disaster between Paris and Cergy when I'm on it. Interesting.

Finally, c'est impossible for the man in our French class movie to eat anything at the restaurant because his stomach was upset. My question to that situation was, "Why did he go to a restaurant?"

It's Monday Alright

Not much time to write so just a note to let you know what is "just not possible" today.

C'est impossible: withdrawing more than X euros cash out of your own account with your own check card at your own bank because that particular branch is not the actual branch at which you set up the account

Interestingly enough, I need the cash to pay rent, and I have to deposit said cash at the landlord's original account's bank branch in the 19th. I don't even want to know why all of this has to be done in cold hard cash . . . .

J'habite à Paris!

I made this really cool panaramic photo of my view, but it's not being cooperative with blogger so I put it into a mini-slide show for you. Whenever I'm climbing up the 6 flights of stairs to my apartment, I think of the view and tell myself that it's worth it!

My Apartment

Cheese Krispies and Cheetos

Lots to cover, we have (that was for you, Paul). Before I catch you up on all of the goings-on since mid-October, I’ll do a quick recap of Christmas and New Year’s. I arrived home for Christmas break on December 18th, looking a little worse for the wear. C’est la vie. It was so wonderful to be at home. We threw a shower for Lacy on the 22nd, which was lots of fun. I’ll post pictures when I have them. Christmas was really nice and relaxing and Mom decorated the house to the nine’s and the tree was magnificent as usual. I ate about 500 cheese krispies, which you’d think would have turned me off of them, but I’m thinking I could really use some right now.

Other than eating cheese Krispies, I managed to make it to The Picnic a couple of times and tool around in the little red car a bit. The Wallace family had its decade-ual (my new word for happening once every ten years) Christmas party. Grab a name tag and get a stiff drink. We introduced Paul to eggnog, which did not go over well.

Sarah, Beth, Mary and I also had a dinner with Lacy to celebrate the bride-to-be. After a ridiculously fun dinner, a bar stop and Lacy elbowing me in the ribs in order to get a seat in the back-back of the stay-wag, we convinced our driver (Tom) to stop at Walgreens for Twizzlers, Oreos and Cheetos (which Maggie the dog later dumped over with the cone she was being forced to wear) and mixers we never used. About half an hour after arriving home, Sarah had vacuumed up the Cheetos and the dog and we had all passed out on the couch. Oops.

Although I was sad to leave home again, I was looking forward to seeing Jenny and Mike, who were in Paris for New Years. I managed not to have jet lag (yay!) and went out to dinner with them on Sunday night. On Monday, a group of us went out to a restaurant in the neighborhood and then came back to my house for une petite soirée. I had been missing the parties Beth and I threw in New York so have a little get together was a perfect way to start the New Year. Of course, Jenny and Mike bring the party with them wherever they go.

Lacy's Dinner

Bonne Annee 2008

Around Town and Such

Beaucoup of pictures from the last couple of months for you to see. Stories follow. I'll keep adding this week, so you'll have to hunt for new stories.

Out & About in France and Elsewhere

Research at Sephora

Friday, October 12th

Why I had devoted an entire entry to this one? Je ne sais pas. Oh well, it was fun. Our group decided to create a new fragrance for a product development project so we went to Sephora to do research. We basically mapped out the whole fragrance section, which obviously took a while. I was asked a couple of times where certain things were. I guess standing in Sephore madly writing things down on a clipboard makes people think you work there – crazy. We had such a good group and the project turned out really well. Yay, team!

My Computer Becomes Multi-lingual

I had my first enlightenment moment later with the same fragrance project. Of course, I knew I was in a very international program, but I just hadn’t truly appreciated the fact. I was in charge of combining everyone’s slides into one presentation so I was gathering and deleting and such. Suddenly, I realized that, given the particular slide, my computer gave me my options in English, French or Korean. I was a little bit miffed that the computer is apparently C3PO when it comes to language, but that I was still struggling with my 2nd. However, I forgave my computer and then took a moment to appreciate how cool it is to learn so many things about so many cultures in just one semester.

A Bad Week, A Good Dinner, Tout Est Impossible and Les Rêves en Francais (et Espagnol)

Monday October 15th – Friday, October 19th

Hmmm . . . a bad week. I don’t quite remember what happened so it must not have been that bad. Most likely, it was too much work and too little sleep.

I do remember having a good dinner with Marta and Meeta. Meeta makes the best chicken curry. It’s the first Indian food I’ve ever liked. Then Marta is such an excellent cook too and she always brings thinks like Spanish omelets or tapas to the table. I just try to provide wine and entertainment.

“Tout est impossible” must refer to my learning that the French actually do believe that many things are, in fact, impossible. And I’m not talking about things like living underwater in a mermaid village or flying to the moon with wings made out of tin foil. I should further explain. Below are some things that are “impossible” in France:

• Going in an exit, despite it being physically possible
• Cancelling my lease contract
• Picking up your residency card before the school has called you, even though the school knows that the card is at the Préfecture and the Préfecture knows that the card is at the Préfecture (the way around this dilemma is simply to lie and say that the school called you)
• Almost anything you want to do at the train station
• Picking up dog poop on the sidewalk
• And my personal favorite: Doing anything one simply does not feel like doing

Actually, I’m going to start a list of impossible things. Let’s see what we have by summer.

Finally, les rêves. I do remember this happening. I was dreaming in French and then in the dream, I was supposed to take Spanish lessons. I was all upset, though, because I knew a few Catalan words, but nothing in Spanish. Needless to say, I was confused the next morning.

My 30th and Laura's Visit

Monday, October 22nd

Laura came to visit for my birthday and it was fantastic to see her. I was so happy to see a face from home. We went out to dinner on Monday night and then later that week we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, which I had never done before. Merci! Merci, Laura! Your visit meant a lot to me.

Ma Classe