"Thursday's the New Saturday!"

And so it began . . . .

The quote above -- proclaimed in a New York bar in the Fall of 2000 -- was courtesy of my friend John, who will probably deny saying it now, even though it was an amazing thing to say. I've never forgotten it because it was the first time that I encountered the concept of something like a weekday being "in," or utterly "out." I mean at that time, everybody knew that Thursday was the new Saturday. Jeez. Thursday probably lasted about 6 months only to be replaced by Tuesday.

Now, I've spent the past year studying everything that's "in," knowing that tomorrow it will all be passé. As a final step in my program, I need a little help from you to know what's the thing to do these days. Even though I try to keep up, it's hard when you're not living in the States and talking about the latest TV show, restaurant, etc.

So, if you have a second to reply to this post with fun things, it would help a lot. Anything you want to share would be great -- movies everyone is seeing, the most popular TV shows, who Joel is talking about on "The Soup," exhbitions, general gossip, news stories, where everyone is going on vacation this year, the newest frozen yougurt place or anything else that you can think of.

Also, thanks so much to everyone who filled out my shoe survey! So far, it's been really insightful and I appreciate the time you took to help me earn my MBA -- (soon) yay!

If you didn't get the survey and want to fill it out (it only takes 10 mins), here's the link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5vApQnEdfPQ2ALfrqQLcOA_3d_3d

Sorry to use my blog for school solicitation, but I figured that I had included enough entertainment throughout the year to ask for just a little help with my homework. Carey and I threw a costume party on Friday night so you can count on some good pictures going up soon. I was the Eiffel Tower.

xx,
A

I Once Was Lost But Now Am Found

Wowie Wow! I took a big fall the other day -- 7 whole storeys! A stiff breeze came along, and then, wheeeeeeeee I was flying! And then down, down, down I went. I've always wondered what I would be like to visit the courtyard. Now I know. It isn't really a big deal. You see a lot less of Paris, but do get frequent visits from Clovis the cat.

Anyway, some kind stranger picked me up and placed me under the tree where I sat for a day and a night. Then, my owner's roommate came and found me. After she took a short turn around the neighborhood to get a coffee and a smoothie (so she could pretend for just one day that she was back in New York), she came to fetch me and took me back upstairs.

Now I am with my friend again. Here we are -- happy as little clams.

Love & Kisses,
Plant*

* that's me, there on the right

And Another Thing

When Elizabeth moved in she brought two plants with her and set them on the window sill. Today I noticed that there is only one. There is no evidence of the other 7 storeys down in the courtyard either. I don't know what I'm going to tell her when she gets back.

Good-ness!

I had a lovely picnic last night on the Champ de Mars under the Eiffle Tower. After a disappointing attempt to rent Louise a friend, Jody and I met Carey and a bunch of friends at the park for snacks and wine. It's quite the party over there during the summer. We left around 11:30 and there were still plenty of people hanging around.

We also discovered that the one way to look dumb in Paris is to put on a helment and ride around on a Segway in a herd of other Segway wranglers.

Picnicking on the Champ de Mars

The Chanting Explained & the Exploded Suitcase

I felt like a jerk for not knowing which Jewish holiday it was so I looked it up. It's Shavuot. You can read about it here. Carey and I are now wondering if the lights in are stairwell have been turned off because of Shavuot. It's a little dangerous. We can't see anything until floor 5.

Also there have been police outside of our building since Saturday. Carey thinks it might be due to Elizabeth's suitcase that she left downstairs and was either shot and exploded or just doused in water. Here's that story (I received this email from Carey on June 1st):

i just got back from the police station. here's why.

my friend elizabeth is moving in with me for the month- i live on the sixth floor (french, so seventh american floor) with no elevator, so we left her big suitcase downstairs while we went back for another load. when we went back for the suitcase, there was dirt and water all over the floor. but no suitcase. an old bitch who lives on the first floor was coming downstairs as we were staring confusedly at the corner. i asked her if she'd seen a suitcase.

her: "yes, i was worried about it too."

me: "worried? do you know where it went? it's ours."

her: "oh, the police came and shot it."

me: "what? shot it? uhhh"

her: "yeah, we thought it looked suspicious. there was another real problematic bag a few years ago, you know"

me: "uhhhh"

her: "the police came and told me to stay inside and then i heard a gunshot."

me: "uhhhh. do you know where it is?"

her: "no. they shot it"

me: "uhhh ok."

so elizabeth called the cops. three different places before they figured out where she was. idiots. once she got the, their response was something like:

cop: "no, it was taken immediately to the police station and it was exploded."

elizabeth: "but we only left it for like half an hour"

cop: "nope, we were called and it was a suspicious bag and we had to do that becuase it was policy"

so she took elizabeth's information and told her to come to the commisariat in my 'hood right away. so we have a mental breakdown, then head over there. some nice cops on the street directed us in the right direction. we walked in and the exchange went like this:

me: "we're looking for a suitcase that disappeared"

cop: "ohhhhhhh" (looks at another cop and laughs) "the suitcase!"

me: "uhhhhh.."

then they take elizabeth in the back and i waited out front for her wondering what was happening. what was happening was they took her back and took her around the corner to her exploded bag on the ground. she was suprised cause her stuff was still there, obviously intact, even though they'd said on the phone it was exploded, which we thought meant it would be in smithereens, like if american cops exploded something.

they wouldn't answer her questions but just took her and wrote her info on a piece of notebook paperwhere people had been writing all day, completely unofficial, and she had to sign saying she'd received her luggage and the components inside on the 31 may. they i see her come out with two cops carrying her baglike it was a corpse. apparently "explode" means "cut around the edges, don't look at anything inside, just destroy the piece of luggage and get everything really dirty and wet".

so they gave us a trashbag that we shoved all her clothes in- when i asked for another the bitch cop told me it was the last one they had. go figure. i told them that i'd left suitcases downstairs 7 different times and never had any problem-apparently i was just lucky. since i live next to a synagogue there are always cops patrolling and if something's suspicious they take it and blow it up. aka get it wet. effing france.

"Wait! I Can't Pray!" and Other Exclamations

Something has been going on at the synagogue downstairs. There has been a great amount of chanting and singing and general goings-on over the last few days. I've been too lazy to try to figure out which holiday, if any, it is. On Saturday, I heard a lot of commotion down in the courtyard so I peeked out of the window to see a bunch of men and boys gathered and playing some sort of game. So I made Carey look out the window to witness the scene. Just as she opened the window, she heard the rabbi yell, "Wait! I can't pray!" Who knows? They are chanting right now and it's a Tuesday morning. Must figure out what's going on.

In a sort of religious vein, Carey and I volunteered with our church a few weekends ago at L'Envol, which is one of Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall camps for terminally ill children. We spent the day varnishing the fence of the mini-farm in our space suits (see pictures below). I'm still a little confused as to why the mini-farm has a fence because the goats, ducks and roosters we saw were just wandering around all willy-nilly.

In between varnishing, we took a tour of the château and the grounds, which were really nice. We also had a picnic on the back terrace. Carey and I thought we did well just to pack a lunch, but we were quickly put to shame by one woman's virtual cornucopia of goodies in a huge basket. Whatever, our smushed pb&j's were just fine. Well, Carey just had pb.

The people we were volunteering with were, well, interesting. While I was listening to one woman tell me about how she could not find one single volunteer opportunity for her 16-year-old daughter during her Spring break (and I'm thinking, "wow, what a lame Spring break"), Carey was being regaled by stories of how the woman next to her had moved from Alaska because she felt that she needed a man there, but couldn't find one, but that she was okay on her own in Paris. Sometimes people share too much.

All in all, it was a good day. It was almost not a good day when we thought we might miss our train because the camp people insisted we sit and have coffee. But we made the train, so it was a good day.

Day at L'Envol

Springtime+ (from Lacy's Shower to Evil Prawns)

I can't leave that somewhat depressing entry from Saturday up for too much longer. Alors, here are some fun things I've done this Spring (well, since December really). Just more incentive for you all to come visit.

Paris Printemps & Other Things

There Goes the Sun

I am back from the beach and alone in rainy Paris: a sad state of affairs. Come visit me!

La Côte d'Azur

Here are some pictures from my voyage. I forgot my camera so these are courtesy of a fellow traveler. Thank goodness for my camera phone! I will have more to post for you later.

La Côte d'Azur avec Chesley

Here Comes the Sun!

I am currently in the South of France enjoying the beautiful weather, while my industrious beau works the day away. Well, I am enjoying the sun and working on my school project in the hotel resto (only Internet access) too.

Here is a picture of me also being industrious and responsible:

And here is what is watching me work*:

* Animal arrangement courtesy of the hotel propietere's father