first week of classes

The Fondation Marjolin. My bedroom is on the very top floor with the arched windows, the 2nd from the left.

My desk and bed. Notice the stud on the top corner or my bed ;o)

My armoire and sink

My mini-fridge, well stocked with yogurt, 'cause in each package you get letter magnets. Right now my fridge says "risk" and "ears".

Okay, I lied already. It's actually the end of my second week of classes...but being the perfectionist I am, I really hate to break a good routine. And I didn't tell you about my first week of classes, so this works...sort of.

Anyways, that said, yup--I'm finally in school again! Life has been settling into a routine, and the weeks are passing a bit faster. So I've decided to tell you a bit about the less adventurous side of my life, and more about "ma vie quotidienne" [my everyday life].

As I'm sure you know, I live at the Fondation Marjolin; it's a building with about 100 residents between 18 and 30, most are working though some are students, and it's a pretty good mix of cultures. My room is on the top floor, and it has a bed, armoire, desk, sink and mini-fridge. I share a bathroom with my neighbour, and the entire building shares a kitchen on the main floor. There's also a small library, a laundry room, and right now they're building a big living room.
I get up around 10 am. Yeah, I know my mom and Kim just grimaced... "What kind of life is that?" I'm sure you're asking. You're just jealous! And I figure I've only got 2 more years to enjoy it before I'm up at 6:30 every morning, so I'll take it while I can! Plus, there's really not much to do all by yourself in a room for a couple hours before class.

Then I leave for class at 11 and take the metro across Paris with Steph and Nate, it takes us about 45 minutes to make the trip. We all have class in the same building from 12-2, which is convenient, because the school is actually spread between 3 or 4 buildings, all about 15 minutes apart. So I climb 105 stairs to our classroom, and for 2 hours we go through dictées, exercises, readings and oral presentations.
After class we head to the library, a couple metro stops and 122 stairs away. It's a room about the size of Ryan's ice rink, with walls of books, oak tables and chairs and view of the Eiffel Tower. Oh, and best of all it has wifi! Thank goodness for that, or you'd never get to read about my life.
Then we take the metro back home, climb 112 stairs from undergroud to street level and walk a few blocks back to our appartment...and then it's 92 stairs to my bedroom. Although most French people eat supper around 8, our stomachs refuse to break with Canadian routine, and we usually end up making supper by 6. So far it's been a lot of pasta and rice...and baguettes. But I found some sliced bread, and on the other side of Paris I found a store that sells cheddar cheese, so tonight we're having grilled cheese baby! sweeeeeeet!

After supper we do a half hour or so of homework, then...we pick our noses. Just kidding! Usually we have tea time in Nate's room and watch a few episodes of the Office...although we've finished season 3 and now are going through all the commentaries.

And in the rest of my spare time...well...I like to polish my boots (yeah, I know, weird eh?), go for walks around our arrondissement, eat treats from the patisserie on a park bench....pick my nose...

Joking aside, I spend a lot of time thinking about home. I miss eveyrone so much! I really miss 333 Springbrook with all you awesome girls--you were a blast, and I miss having you around to chat with and goof around with! And I miss chilling at the boys house, getting my tv fix, making breakfast, playing poker...And miss my family too; this week would have been reading break for me, and I know I would have had Sunday treats at Grandma's, and then Sunday soup with my family...I love Sunday's at home. And I miss Jordan. A lot.
But I've still got all of you to look forward to when I get home! There's still so much I have to explore here and learn about, so I can't come home yet! In 98 days I can....

"Il y a trop d'escaliers à Paris" [There's too many stairs in Paris]

I'm sure it's good for me, but unfortunately I've balanced it out with a serious addiction to mini kitkat bars. Bad news for July 19...

Things you may not know about Paris...

I've compiled a helpful list to help culture you all au sujet de Paris. Enjoy!

1) The whole baguette thing isn’t a joke. They haven’t discovered sliced bread here yet, so they eat baguettes for breakfast. And lunch. And supper. At any given time of day as you walk down the street, you’re likely to see 8 out of 10 people carrying a lethally hard bread stick. On a side note, I’m dying for grilled cheese!

2) Taxes and tips are included in the price of everything you buy, so you never have to stand in a store, staring at a pack of underwear thinking “what’s $8.59 times 14%? Will a ten cover that?”

3) Jordan and I usually get made fun of for taking our “ca-ca’s”, or our “blankies” everywhere with us. (It’s legit! Not everyone has sleeping bags handy. And why not, really?). Anyways, here, “ca-ca” is something you wanna stay away from. It’s dog poop. And it’s everywhere.

4) Everything—grocery stores, museums, businesses—are all closed for a couple hours in the afternoon so everyone can go home and eat lunch. It’s a nice idea, but not everyone closes at the same time. So you may go to the grocery store at 3:30 thinking your safe…and no, it’s still lunch time. Or you may go downstairs at 11:00am to buy laundry tokens…and no, it’s lunch time. I think we should adopt 2 hour lunch siestas in Canada though. It’s a super idea, really.

5) It’s considered “in style” for girls to wear tights under shorts with a pair of high heels. And other than the bum population, everyone here is “a la mode”. No, not served with ice-cream—they’re all fashionable. So when I come home wearing shorts and tights, don’t laugh…you all know you’ll be wearing the same thing next spring!

6) Car bumpers are actually meant for bumping. If you’ve parallel parked and there’s more than 10 cm of space between your car and the car in front of you, you’re not done parking yet. I don’t understand how it’s even possible to get out of a space like that…I’ve watched an 18 point turn take place! I have finally discovered the purpose of the Smart Car though…

7) The French don’t count the main floor of a building as a level. Well, I guess they do, its floor # 0. They call it “rez-de-chaussée” [level of the road]. So when I say I live on the fifth floor, I’m actually on the sixth floor.

8) I had to laugh the other day when I came out of the bathroom at a restaurant with Steph and asked “So, did you get a seat this time?” Yup, you’re lucky if you get a toilet seat in Paris. I’m really not sure why half the bathrooms don’t have one though. One theory is that all the immigrants steal them. I’m curious though, as to what anyone would do with a collection of dirty public toilet seats…let alone how they’d get away with walking around with them in public…None the less, I’ve found an upside to the lack of toilet seats—ab workout every time I have to go pee.

And that's everything you need to know about Paris in 8 simple points. Now that you're cultured, please come and visit, wearing shorts and tights, and carrying either a baguette or toilet seat, and impress toutes les Parisiens.

I have no idea if this is actually proper French, but:

Bonne journée de la Saint Valentin! [Happy Valentine's day!]

my first sangria

our hostel, right on the beach

seafood supper! i just took the pictures...

boat ride along the barcelona coastline

a mammoth in his natural environment...i'm so sure.

early morning sunrise

there's beautiful mister sun!

palm trees everywhere!

parrots in the wild

suntanning in a sweater in february...but sun tanning none the less!

Well, poor us over here in Paris, we were so exhausted from all our vacationing that we decided we needed a vacation from our vacation. So we went to Barcelona!

We flew out on a Monday morning, and arrived in the Barcelona sun that afternoon. Our hostel was quite literally right on the beach; all we had to do was step off the patio and we were squishing sand between our toes. And Mister Sun came out to greet us every day we were there. It was about 15 degrees, so every afternoon we laid on the beach for a couple hours. Nate and Steph were brave enough to strip down to tanks and shorts, but not me. I did tan my face a bit though! And I managed to wade thigh-deep in the Mediterranean before I was freezing—the sun is deceiving, ‘cause the water felt about the same as Lake Erie in May—a bit chilly! I’ll save swimming in the Med for our trip to Italy! (sorry, I really do feel a bit bad rubbing that in. I wish I could take you all!)

So my firsts for this trip:

-my first glass of sangria

-my first time getting up to see a sunrise, just because. I wasn’t forced, and it was definitely worth it!

-my first ride on a coach bus. I know, Steph laughs too every time I have to admit to taking a new form of transportation. And I haven’t even taken the train yet!

-my first, and probably last bottle of Manzana, ‘cause it’s only sold in Spain…which is unfortunate ‘cause it’s so yummy! And so cheap!

So as I sit snuggled up against the heater in my room, I can’t help but long for the Barcelona sun again. But it’s okay to be back to reality, because I finally start classes on Tuesday! Yay! I’m told that things start to go a bit quicker and you don’t miss home as much once classes start and you get into a routine, so I’m excited about that. Then it’s 10 weeks straight of classes before Spring Break. So I’m not sure what exciting things I’ll have to report every week, but we’re still hoping to do a lot more exploring here in Paris. The gardens should all be in bloom soon, and the fountains running again, and there’s still a ton of museums to check out, so there’ll be lots to see!

So before I go, here's today's french lesson:

Donnez-moi le poulet! [Give me the chicken!]

my first bisou

I forgot to mention that while I was in Normandy I experienced my first bisou as we were leaving the JL Institute. A bisou is the French kiss (not the tongue kind!), where you gently hold the other person’s upper arms and kiss the air on either side of the face; it’s what friends do to say hello and goodbye. I wasn’t expecting it to happen at all, so when the girl leaned towards me, as if for a hug, I went in for the whole big arms around the back, good old North American hug, while she did the delicate hands on the arms thing, and needless to say…it was an awkward moment. I screwed up my first bisou. From now on I will be delicate and proper and keep my arms to myself.

So for today’s French lesson, here’s something you can yell to your friends as you pass them in the hallway at school:

groses bisoux! [kisses!]

my first trip to the ocean

Chateau Gaillard...over 1000 years old!

that's me.

the 3 of us in front of the place where joan d'arc was burned at the stake in Rouen. I'm not sure why we're smiling...

first time at the ocean!

our hostesses and Dr. Rusthoven infront of the Jacques Lefevre Institute

Mont. Saint Michel from a distance

Mont. Saint Michel up close--the big building at the top is the Abbey (it's huge!), and around it is the city

me in front of the chateau d'Amboise. Jordan--don't worry, i didn't cut all my hair off, steph just french braided it for me that day.

posing in front of a Lebanon cedar. where we're sitting is actually about 30 feet in the air above the city 'cause there's a whole garden inside the fortified walls of the chateau

The past 3 days have been great! Dr. Rusthoven was in Paris for a week, so on Thursday morning we rented a car and took a trip up to Normandy. We stayed at a house called the Jacques Lefevre Institute, a place where 3-week French courses are offered in the summer through a Christian organization. Our bedroom over looked the English Channel, and while some people insist I only saw the sea, I’m convinced I have finally seen the ocean! I didn’t get to touch or taste it yet…but that’ll happen before I come home. We had wonderful hosts, a couple of Austrian sisters, and they made the best suppers each nite—we had French soup, chicken cordon bleu, chicken soup, spaghetti, and tons of Parisian bread with French cheeses. It made me miss my mom’s cooking even more than I already do!

The days were a whirlwind of sight-seeing, running up and down stairs, and gasping in fear in the back seat of the car…I’ll get to that later. Thursday we stopped in Rouen to walk through a 14^th c. cathedral and see the place where Joan d’Arc was burned at the stake. We also took a bit of a detour to see Chateau Gaillard, a chateau that’s over a thousand years old!

On Friday we drove out toward the REAL Atlantic Ocean to see the Mont. Saint Michel. It’s an incredible looking island, just off shore, with a huge Abbey built at the top, and a small city circling the sides. It’s like a labyrinth inside, with high stone walls and stairs everywhere. You can drive to the island when the tide’s out, and it didn’t come in while we were there, but on some days, depending on the week, the tide comes in and covers the entire parking lot! Sucks if you forget to move your car…On the way back we stopped quickly at a few war monuments along the beaches of Normandy. One of the places was Pointe du Hoc, a fortification from WWII with the bunkers and craters still intact. Looking down over the steep cliffs, it was difficult to imagine the allies being able to climb them, let alone under heavy gunfire. We also stopped at Omaha beach to see where Dr. Rusthoven’s dad landed when he fought in the war. Apparently he was part of the troop that accidentally blew off the top of the city’s church steeple, ‘cause they thought it was a German fortress, so we stopped and saw the rebuilt church steeple too.

Saturday was a lot of driving, but we made it to Amboise in Vallée de la Loire to see Leonardo daVinci’s house and the Chateau d’Amboise. Leo’s grave is in a small chapel in the chateau, and we also saw stuff like Louis-Philipe’s bed, piano, couch and stuff. If I was a history buff the names would mean more…but basically there were a bunch of kings and dukes and important people that lived there.

The rest of the time was spent in the car hanging on for dear life. I’m really grateful to Dr. Rusthoven for taking us to Normandy, but I’m even more grateful that we made it there and back again alive! The brakes were pretty touchy, so there was a lot of head-banging motion going on in the back seat…and not ‘cause we loved the French Church Songs CD we were listening to. It’s nearly impossible to follow a highway from one point to another, because they twist and turn into little streets as you pass through towns, so being the navigator was a feat. It was a test in patience, that’s for sure, but Dr. R. said we all passed.

It was so great to get out of the city for a few days, breathe some fresh air again and enjoy a slower pace of life. Now we have another week of nothing-ness to kill before we start classes, so we’ve decided to take a 4 day trip to Barcelona! It’s only February, so I’m not expecting bikini weather, but I’m excited to soak up a bit of sun since our hostel is right on the beach. I’ll let y’all know how it was when I get back!

And today’s French lesson will be our mantra from the Normandy trip:

“Je vais mourir, je vais mourir!” [I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die!]