nouvelles choses (new things)

Finally, an update that isnt a list of things that have gone wrong.

I finally have my clothes and have been taking proper showers with the puffy soap thing. Its funny how those things can really affect your outlook on life.

I finally started having fun and relaxing a bit, thanks to clean clothes and a clean me. The Fête de la Musique was absolutely brilliant. After class a group of the students and I met up at Place Bellecoeur for a lovely meal of "kebab" meat and a pita from the multitude of street vendors there. About 20 feet from us was a group of Native American Indians dressed in traditional garb and playing drums and chanting, etc, and about 20 feet from that was a group of kids mixing really bad eurotrash pop/disco music on turntables. There were Coldplay coverbands and bagpipers and french folk music and punk rock and techno house music aplenty, and thousands and thousands of people out in ever street in the city.

After taking in a few performances, we headed across the Saône River to Vieux Lyon and bought bottles of outrageously cheap and horrible wine to drink on the riverside. My friend Emily and I shared an especially disgusting bottle that cost us all of 2.95£. But it did the trick and soon we were all wine happy and the cacophony of the multiple music genres started to sound like symphonies. Then we headed to a pub in the heart of Vieux Lyon called St. James, where the bartenders are cuter because they all speak English. The streets in Vieux Lyon were so tiny and the crowds of people so great that we literally had to push our way through to the bar the entire time. After buying a few cups of Sangria from a street vendor who looked like he'd had a few too many himself, we stood outside The St. James and enjoyed the bagpiper standing a few paces up the street. I felt especially good, since this had been the first time I had actually enjoyed myself and wasn't stressed in almost 2 weeks. There was a group of rowdy French guys and girls to our left who were attempting to do Irish jigs to the music, and mostly because of the Sangria, I decided to show them how it was really done. They were obviously impressed with my fancy footwork and complete lack of french grammar. (the more intoxicated you get in France, the more you try to speak in French without inhibitions about mistakes, although the result is usually complete incomprehension.) It turned out that one of them did speak English and actually was a big fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, oddly enough.  They invited us to another bar down the street where we listened to some really bad house techno music while taking a shot filled with some kind of liquor and tabasco sauce. I thought I was going to die. So all in all, a good night finally.

This weekend was nice as well, we got out of class early on Friday and Emily and I went and bought our train tickets to Paris next weekend, we went window shopping at the mall in preparation for the nationwide sales that go on starting this Wednesday, and then we went out for beer and a stroll down the Rhône river with our new French friends from the Fête the night before.

Then Saturday night at dinner with my host family, we were talking about bungee-jumping and parachuting, and they told me that Martine (my host mom) had been paragliding like 3 years ago (keep in mind this woman is like almost 60). I told them that I had always wanted to go either parachuting or paragliding and I think they were going to offer to take me, but then decided it was just really expensive. So they offered to take a Sunday and take me to Geneva instead. So the 8th of July I'm headed to Geneva for an afternoon. I'm pretty stoked.

France isn't that bad (provided you have clothes and have had a proper shower within a few days.)

My birthday is tomorrow. Its weird to not be spending it with loved ones and instead with people that I've only just met a week and a half ago. I'm not really sure whats happening except that there will be some kind of drinking after class and perhaps, hopefully, du gâteau (some cake).

bisous! xoxox

Danielle

29 Jun 2007

Paris (the city, not the rich chick) so i'm in Paris. just got here. no sign of the Eiffel Tower yet. Emily and I were supposed to meet up with her sister when we got here and the hotel we're staying at was reserved by Emily's sister and we only have a general idea of where it is. Now comes the fun part: Emily's sister missed her flight out here and we just found out after we got into Paris that she was hoping we could postpone our trip until a later time and asked if we would cancel the reservations for the hotel. Should be an interesting stay from here on out! Paris shenanigans are the best shenanigans! 06 Jul 2007 an update Paris was of course, fantastic. We saw most of the big touristy stuff the first day and the second day we relaxed a bit, had a few bottles of champagne on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower that night, and had a nice breakfast before catching the train back to Lyon. I have a funny story involving a bottle of wine, a drunk Frenchman and his attempts at English, but its too long to type, so if you care, ask me later. The July part of the program started this Tuesday. I was excited for it to begin because even though we're just over halfway finished, it feels like the beginning of the end. Except it didn't turn out so great. Time seems to have slowed to a pace that would put it second place in a race with a rock. In addition to the 20 or so kids from Kansas City, we had a large group of students from Arizona join us, as well as a group from Korea, 3 or 4 people from Serbia, and one chick from Romania. All the groups were split up into the different levels of French proficiency, and now have classes on some days at 8am. None of these things have been improvements to my life here. The Arizonans are alright, there is one or two that annoy the shit out of me, but overall, I like. The Koreans are adorable, but a tad difficult to understand and mostly stick with each other. I fucking hate the Serbians. Fuuuuuuuuu-ckkkkkkkking hate the Serbians. The Romanian chick is the worst though. Why does she/they have to be in my level and in most of my classes? Why? The answer is this: its the same reason my luggage was lost for a week- God hates me. Ah well. I'm still very thankful that I'm here and that I have this wonderful opportunity to study this obsinate and difficult language in its country of origin, but I do miss my wonderful English-speaking life in Seattle, especially my wonderful English-speaking and non-Serbian boyfriend. I wrote him an email the other day that sums up my feelings perfectly: This program has been great, but its basically just three weeks too long. It would be absolutely perfect if I was headed back this week. Everything would stay magically European in my head and I'd remember the experience fondly. But its going on a little long and I'm getting over the whole France thing. I stocked up on all my culture the first couple of weeks, and I'm chock full now. Time to go. I'm out. As Reid put it, "you've proven to everyone that you are a world traveller and its time to come home now." Instead, there's still 2.5 weeks left for the charmingly European taste to turn stale in my mouth. Everyday there seems to be something very French that's very annoying. I do have a greater appreciation of the dull and comforting familiarity of the US which I used to find boring and like "grass less green." I probably am just PMSing. I've been real grouchy and have had a black outlook on life lately. Maybe the last two weeks will be the best. What's that saying? "One can always hope." I'm going to Geneva with my host parents on Sunday. Should be swell. Tonight, I plan on binge drinking and trying to forget that I had to write a poem (in French, bien sûr!) at 8am this morning. Who has assignments like that? I can't even write poetry in English, assholes. Nice try. oh- one more parting complaint: I learned a new word today in French. Its "créee." It is the feminine past participle of the verb créer- to create. Really? THREE e's? Are three e's in a row really necessary? Couldn't you have just called it a day after 2 e's and said the feminine version can actually be the same as the masculine without your berets exploding from the stress? I'll let you ponder that as I uncork this bottle of wine.