September 2011
1 post
Time flies...
Time really does fly when you’re having fun :) And I’ve had one damn good year. I got my B.A.F.A. certification (merci French government) summer 2010. I graduated from college with a double BA in Geography and French in June 2011. I took my first Math class in 5 years and did NOT fail. My twin brother graduated with some DAMN good grades from his university June 2011. One of my big...
June 2010
1 post
May 2010
1 post
April 2010
2 posts
The Socially Acceptables
It is socially acceptable to be absolutely obsessed with football (soccer). There are tons of people in the states who devote solid portions of their days drooling over the latest sports gossip, columns, scores, etc and insist on talking about it with everyone they see as a conversation opener. The interesting thing here, which only just occurred to me during a conversation with a friend a few...
March 2010
5 posts
Exactly the reason I love dogs →
February 2010
5 posts
First Week Back
Ahhh what familiar sensations! Geography classes are easy to find considering all of the classrooms are within 5 feet of one another on the same floor. However, Literature? No. No. The epic maze that is the Sorbonne once again succeeded in repelling students from the classrooms they search for by having 7 different versions of the same damn map as well as an annoyingly superfluous amount of doors...
The Socially Unacceptables
It is NOT socially acceptable to eat while walking. Apparently us multi-tasking Americans do it all the time. I still do it because lord knows I’ve had some interesting experiences in parks and on benches. People like to crowd your space. Also, once you find a good spot with a decent people watching view, it’s only a matter of time before that hobo across the street eyeballs you and...
The Socially Acceptables
It is socially acceptable to be blunt and critical. Most American children are taught from pre-school till whenever that we must always treat others the way we would want to be treated. That does not always settle into our minds until someone breaks our widdo hearts by smashing our beautifully crafted sandcastle and you find a helping hand from a kind person. We are taught to be kind to others and...
January 2010
5 posts
“Ma grande ambition dans la vie? Devenir immortal, puis mourir. ( My great...”
– À Bout de Souffle, film de Jean-Luc Godard fait en 1960. I can’t remember the characters name, but the young and beautiful American journalist, Patricia, received this as a response during an interview.
Where did they go?
It has come to my attention that my weekly entertainment is no more. Apparently the CGT and the post office have procured whatever rights changes they were after. Damn. I’ll admit, every time I hear an unusual amount of honking, I rush to my window with hopes that i’ll get an eyeful of pissed off protestors, heftily armed policemen, and those wonderful bystanders. But no. Again, I say...
Winter Break in Lovely East Aurora
As expected, spending two weeks back at home after more than three months in Paris made me blatantly aware of how I have adjusted. I say adjusted instead of changed because I am a person who is heavily influenced by her surroundings. As such, changed carries too permanent a connotation. Humans are creatures of habit. I know that when I move back to Denver, those ‘adjustments’ will...
December 2009
1 post
It is socially acceptable to let your dog poop on the sidewalk…and not pick it up. Sorry, Parisians, but concrete does NOT absorb your pooch’s petit poops.
November 2009
6 posts
The Socially Acceptables...
I am going to keep a running list of things that are (seemingly) socially acceptable. Whether these behaviors are actually “acceptable” or whether the french have acquired a taste for them (or against them, and by that I mean they have just become quite good at simply looking the other way), or what have you. Here are the first ones I can think of:
-It is socially acceptable to pick...
Drink and be merry
So today is my 21st birthday. Wow. Holy crap, that came out of no where. I’ve been waiting for this day for a good long time. It’s not just about being able to take down a beer or two whenever or wherever I want to, it’s about finally being treated like an adult. I would feel like a hypocrite if I began a self-righteous discussion about how great it feels to have the final point...
Judgements
I am going to try my hardest to censor myself as what I am about to share pretty awesome, and I mean that in a good way and bad way.
I’ll start with the background information which became part of the circumstances leading to the unfortunate event that was the verbal one-two to my face by one of my professors. A few weeks ago, the students in one of my geography classes were to read a book...
October 2009
7 posts
This is going to be a long year
After my first week (barely) of classes, I’d like to start by saying AAAAAAHHHHHH OMGOMGOMG WTF HAVEIGOTTENMYSELFINTO!!!
Having said that, I’m now ready to continue. I’m sure other DU students abroad taking classes in the host language would agree with me that university professor teaching methods are a stark constrast to those of american ones. Having spent 12 hours in class...
The power of ease
I have come to terms with a major dividing line between the french and american methods of life. I’d like to mention at this point that by ‘french’, I’m referring to Parisians, which are for the most part a far cry from the ‘french’ that I have gotten to know. I’d also like to say that I am making mere observations not intended to verbally bash. Having...
September 2009
7 posts
First culture shock
I’d like to take this time to share my first culture shock. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with French culture, but rather that of German students. You know how sometimes at the end of a speech, most of the free world claps with their hands? Well, for German students, they use their knuckles. They instead choose to beat their desks repeatedly with their knuckles. I shit you not. It...
Paris thus far
There seems to be an overwhelming amount of miscommunication among French people. This is one of the reasons it’s been taking so long to get internet wired to my apartment. My landlord says ‘talk to the concierge’ and the concierge says ‘ask your landlord’. It’s beautiful. One of my major pitfalls is my occasional inability to communicate with people. Perhaps...
The first of many
I have decided, after reading that of my Bologna-bound friend Alyssa, to start my own travel blog to keep both family and friends updated on my whereabouts, findings, shenangians, what have you. I have a monumentally difficult time trying to keep a journal which is, at this very moment, mere inches from my hands and yet I find it too difficult to write in on a regular basis. However, I will give...