Louise

Here is a picture of me with my new friend.* Her name is Louise. She and I ride all around town together!

Some people call her Rustina because she had a habit of collecting rust before she met me. I don't think that's very nice.

*Note the lack of headlight in this picture. Someone stole it this very night after I had worked so hard to attach it. Frenchies . . . .

Oops! Les Oeufs!

Our neighbors got egged!

A few nights ago they threw a rawkus dance party and sang horrible (well, and some not so horrible) songs for the whole block to hear. I guess someone below us didn't like the playlist because I was looking out the window this evening and noticed that the party apartment's window was totally egged. Nice.

La Famille Va à Paris

I'm a little out of order in my picture posting, but I guess that doesn't matter so much. In mid-March, Dad, Drusie, Beth, Ben and Abby came over for a grand aventure Parisien. While I was in class, they explored all over Paris, experienced the chaos that ensues after a strike of tour guides in Versailles, discovered Nutella and did all sorts of Parisian things. Together we had a fun day in Montmartre, found out that the Catacombs close at will and without any forewarning and finished with a great dinner at my favorite restuarant, Les Cailloux.

The Bishops in Paris

Le Week-End

Springtime is finally in Paris! The rain has gone away and the sunshine is here! The city is beautiful again. I'm even sunburned where I missed a spot with the suntan lotion. I guess that's what happens when you apply sunscreen while riding a bike through the busy streets of Paris.

Here's what I did this weekend:

1. Met with my company about our field project
2. Went to drinks and dinner with long lost fellow Davidsonian, Dan Wingate
3. Slept in
4. Painted my finger and toenails
5. Figured out the basic concepts of leveraged finance
6. Wondered if the two beers I drank during the figuring out process only made me think I understood leveraged finance
7. Decided I didn't care
8. Ate a hot dog
9. Feel asleep while watching "Groundhog Day" for the 55th time
10. Woke up in time to have drinks (a Seabreeze I might add!) with Jody
11. Moved to another bar to meet our friend Erna
12. Realized my French has gotten a little worse after 3 weeks away
13. Slept in again
14. Met some friends for brunch down the street
15. Rode bikes along the Seine for hours and hours
16. Discovered Bercy Village (so cute!)
17. Rode my bike home
18. Rode my bike to a birthday dinner in St. Germain
19. Rode my bike home
20. Wondered if I maybe shouldn't have had 3 glasses of wine at dinner
21. Decided I didn't care
22. Said good-night to my bike when I put it back in it's little Velib (Paris rental bikes) home

Alors, there was a lot of bike riding today. I think I'm going to buy my own because it's so fun. Watch out Paris!

Normandie

Normandie

I've been meaning to post these pictures since October, which is when I took this trip to Normandie with my classmates Gaby, Tyler & Fabio. We had a great time that included some adventures such as:

1. Me drinking lots of tea after Fabio told me I couldn't because he didn't want to stop to go to the bathroom
2. Me panicking when Fabio really wouldn't stop to let me go to te bathroom an hour later
3. Being lost in the darkest, most middle-of-nowehere I have ever been (everytime our headlights hit the road, we saw stray cats and other unidentifiable road animals)
4. Realizing about 3 months later that "a driote" means "go right" and "tout driote" means "go straight" -- this information would have saved us from adventure #3
5. Being pulled over by the French police in a routine roadblock (in the darkest, most middle-of-nowhere, where there could not have been more than 2 cars passing per hour)

The list goes on and I hope that I will get it together soon to complete the story. Other news -- I'm excited that it's finally Springtime in Paris! I had a great trip home last week to go to Lacy's beautiful wedding (so now I'm a little homesick and missing everyone more than usual). I got put on the field project that I wanted (yay!) and classes end in about 3 weeks (double yay! because I won't have to go out to Cergy anymore).

No Plans Are the Best Plans

Lake Como

After Florence, I met Laura and we hopped on a train to Como for a little weekend adventure.

School Field Trip (not your usual trip to the Children's Museum)

Milan & Florence

Here are some pictures from our recent school trip to visit companies in Milan & Florence.

Loire Valley Adventure

Loire Valley

Captions still being updated. Beth and I had a great time driving around the Loire on my Spring Break. I've posted lots of pictures of chateaux and such and I'll post some more of Paris this week. Sorry to be so out of touch! I'm not sure I've even been that busy. Lots has happened this winter so I will be sure to do some updates.

Looking, looking, looking

Je vais réfléchir: I'll think about it
Thanks to Jenny, I learned this important shopping phrase

Je regarde: I'm just looking
More shopping words courtesy of my French friends

Je jete un oeil: Also, just looking
Literally, I'm throwing an eye. Ick.

Ne pas mettre la charreu avent les bouefs: Don't put the cart before the horse (or cows, literally)

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

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I promise promise promise to update the blog in the next week! Quick summary: I was crazy busy with school and fun since October 20 -- about 18 presentations, one trip to Normandie, a week in London and a move into Paris! I'm so excited to post pictures of my new Swiss Family Robinson apartment in Le Marais. I hope that you've all been doing well and I'll write much more soon. I'll do my best to make it exciting because you have a lot to read.

xxx,
Allison