I went to the Latin Quarter with Danielle and Madeleine last night to get books (and then afterwards we had Indian food, yay), and I went again tonight with McKenzie. I had also gone there on Saturday, so now I pretty much know the Boulevard Saint-Michel like the back of my hand. Before going home tonight we went to Shakespeare & Company. I love that place!! This time there was a kitty there, a chilled-out black cat. A cat in a bookstore! That's why that place rocks. Plus it's so tranquil there, you can just browse for hours. I love it.

Phone got fixed! And now I love it. Fixing it wasn't too bad, either. Pay phones in Paris don't take coins; you need a little card, which I didn't have, but fortunately McKenzie had one left over, which she lent to me, so I went to a pay phone and called the support line, asked for someone who spoke English, and the woman I got was so nice and helpful!! It was awesome. So now it's unlocked and I can use it again, plus I spent so much time combing the manual that I found out how to do more things with it. Like locking the keypad, finding the place where you can hang phone straps (so YESSSS all my Japanese phone straps went back on this phone. The hook was behind the back battery panel, how strange), setting up my voicemail, etc. I also discovered the GAMES!! I don't usually play cell phone games but there is this REALLY FUN SNAKE GAME that is so great... hee, hee. :> Plus, now that I like it again, I think my phone is so cute and little. YAY PHONE ♥ :D

This afternoon I had my housing meeting with the housing director, which made me realize I was being too shy with my host family, and I should talk more to them (which I hadn't been doing due to lack of confidence in my French). So, although that was kind of upsetting to me at the time, tonight at dinner I think I made a sizable improvement. :) yay! Plus, I confirmed that Isis (the cat's name) comes from the name of the Egyptian goddess... as I thought, my host mom loves Egyptian stuff (it's all over the house). I hope she liked that I knew it. They asked about my religion, turns out it's hard to express the concept of a "non-denominational" Protestan Christian, but it also turns out they just wanted to make sure I wasn't the same kind of Christian as Bush. Ha ha! I was just like "Err, also not the hugest Bush fan myself" and they were just sorta like "uh, yeah, us too." Obviously; he (and the other conservatives) have not been the best friends to the French! Freedom fries, don't even get me started... (they're from Belgium! French people laughed their butts off at that, you know!)

I've kind of slipped into this group that's been hanging out together all the time, basically everyone from Saturday night, we just bonded and now we're like this group. I wonder if it will last, but I'm having fun, although I do want to meet more cool people. It's probably going to be impossible to have the same sort of tight-knit awesome group as last year (I'm talking about just about everyone in IES Tokyo as a whole here, not just my group of friends), but I hope we can get pretty close.

Brush-up classes have been this week. But they're not only in the morning, but in the afternoon too!! I take it back, I don't want this anymore! But I need to do really well on the real placement test (this Friday) because I want to get into the highest-level French class, a translation class!! But I do feel better about my French every day... especially scoping out the ability (or lack thereof) of some of the other people here... (COUGH!)

Oooh, but I'm going to get to take Japanese classes! At IES Paris you can take one class at an outside university, there are several you can choose from, and they looked into it for me and I'm going to take Japanese at the Institut Japonais. Placement test on Saturday! yayyy excitingggg

I'm also going to finally get on the ball about that French comic book company whose editorial director gave me his card last August at TOKYOPOP... I hope he meant it when he told me to contact him when I got to Paris, cause I'm following up now. It would be another glittering jewel in my beautiful intern crown... seriously, looking at my resume, it's "intern intern intern intern." It'll be so great to get paid for once someday..!! ha ha

We've got a Sogo 2 (my old Japanese class) email group going. THIS IS FANTASTIC. Matt Kaminski wrote us a hilarious email that was so typically Matt: he typed in all caps, with no spaces or punctuation. He said he wanted to give us a difficult email to read. CLASSIC! Oh, man, so great. I'm so sad I'll have to miss the NYC reunion. I even looked into flights from Paris to NYC (I mean why not, I've always wanted to go and it's right on the eastern coast, wouldn't be that terrible)... $500. :/ wah!

OKAY BEDTIME YAY

So, okay. After we went to the Louvre, even though I had made plans to meet up with two of the other girls I went with that day later, in the end I was tired so I decided to just go to sleep around 7 p.m. (I blame the jetlag). You know how I mentioned both my host parents are gone? Around 9 or 10 p.m. I'm definitely woken up by the sounds of guests arriving. Yes, that's right. My host brother and sister threw a party. Without even telling me the tiniest detail of it, so of course I couldn't get any sleep the whole night long (not really feeling either like getting dressed and going to talk to some strangers in French). At first I was partly amused...

...but it stopped being amusing when I woke up Saturday morning to look at the clock and see that it was TEN AM WHEN I HAD TO BE SOMEWHERE AT 9 TO TAKE A PLACEMENT TEST. I set an alarm but I don't even remember it going off because I was so tired due to NOT BEING ABLE TO SLEEP BECAUSE OF THE LOUD TALKING. The more that I think about it, the more this really bugs me. How dare they not even tell me they were doing this??? Did they think I wouldn't have been cool with it, so they just... didn't mention it?! GREAT PLAN, GUYS. I really, really wish I had known beforehand. So I overslept, and I had to call IES to tell them I was going to be late and why, and I missed the first part of the nice lunch everyone had following the test because I was making mine up. At least they brought me a delicious ham and cheese sandwich, and I still made dessert, and snagged a pretty amusing table. Bertrand, IES Paris's field trip guy, is totally the new Shin-san. It's hilarious the counterparts I'm finding...

Rosa, the housing director, also asked me if I wanted to leave this host family due to the whole party thing, since all the staff knows about it, but I said no... 90% because of the cat, maybe. But I also like the location of the apartment, and this isn't a horrible incident, just really annoying. Even though I am dearly wishing I had chosen apartment housing... I almost wanted to say "yes, but can I be put in an apartment instead?" I just don't think I'm cut out for long-term host family living... I need to be secure in my own space. sigh. I'm going to try and roll with this, but I'm totally yearning for the situation last semester, minus Endo-san of course... She also asked me if I wanted to have IES call my host parents and tell them about the party, but I said no to that. No, I won't rat you out, inconsiderate host siblings of mine...

After that we got tickets for a bus tour of Paris, and Bertrand was my group's leader for that, which involved some of the people from the Louvre excursion. We went to Notre Dame to begin the tour, but about half of us decided not to bother catching the bus and just explore Notre Dame and the surrounding areas. Which we did, we walked around the cathedral, went to Shakespeare & Company bookstore which was so cool, explored the back alleys, which is the Latin Quarter, in search of a cheap cafe (yeah, right). We finally found a good one, and we were there enjoying coffees/beverages for a while, it was really fun.


Notre Dame




It was extremely windy as we were standing outside the cathedral trying to figure out where to go next!



Then we wanted dinner, but didn't want to pay too much, so we went to one of the student cafeterias IES told us about, in the Cité Universitaire. It was interesting; definitely cheap, that's for sure!! Then we went to the Bastille, which is so cool, a really great hangout place. I keep trying to match up the different parts of Paris with the parts of Tokyo. Like, Champs Elysées is kind of Omotesando on a bigger scale, Latin Quarter is maybe the back streets of Harajuku. I'll figure out more later. Anyway, so we hung out there, then we decided we'd go over to Marc's host family's house because they're out of town, and spend the night there until the trains started running (normally I would go home instead of staying out all night, but they told us a bunch of horror stories and I was afraid of getting home on my own). So we went over there, and woww, his host family's house is AMAZING. It's in an apartment building, but occupies two floors, with this huge backyard... it is so nice! We all just walked around in awe.

Us at Marc's

Today I took an afternoon nap, and Isis joined me (best cat ever!). But now it's dinnertime and I don't know if I'm eating with my family, because I only get 2 dinners a week with them (ridiculous) and have to get the rest on my own, and I don't know if this is one of those nights. If it is then I have to go out and get my own food, which I really don't want to do, as it just got pretty cold in Paris (it had been fairly warm up 'til now), plus there are no conbinis here that would make it easy (god bless the Japanese and how they know some of us just want an impersonal buying experience)... this might just be the next in a string of nights in which I am too lazy/scared to go get food, so I just eat some chocolate and essentially starve. Which is lame.
And now, thanks to trying to lock the keypad on my phone last night and accidentally LOCKING THE SIM CARD and I can't unlock it without the PUK code, which I can only get by calling my service provider, WHEN THIS WAS MY ONLY PHONE and I really don't want to explain to my host family why I need to use their phone... if anyone is trying to call me, I can't get it. rrrrrr! I was only trying to lock the keypad, not input a code, which apparently after 3 wrong tries means the WHOLE PHONE GETS LOCKED. I hate non-flip phones...

(later)
I've just come back from dinner (yay, didn't have to go get my own food!)... much better than last time. First, food was great, but then--somehow my host mom has found out about the party, and is not that happy that it happened, but she's also not going to punish her kids, who were both trying to convince her that "it's normal!" and stuff. Then my host dad came home, and when he found out, he just smiled, and they were all "See? He understands!!" and my host mom looked all exasperated and I was just like "..Yeah, I understand too" and they were all "HA, SEE!" So, I'm satisfied. I believe if this ever happens again, I will be told. Good. :)

Here's some pictures of my room in my homestay:

:D it's my 21st birthday today! And I went to the Louvre! A group of people were going, and I happened to be in the room, so I 'tagged along' but it was really fun and I didn't feel like I was tagging along. We saw the Mona Lisa and Vénus de Milo, and the galleries around those, then left to go to a cafe. We can explore the rest later, we have our passes. Saw so many Japanese tourists there, I really wanted to go up and talk to them, hahah, how sad is that. What's even sadder is that I can tell when a particular group of Asian tourists is Japanese... it's the clothes that give it away.

I also figured out how to open the apartment's front door, a personal triumph for me, as that was a source of much embarrassment. =_= BUT I FIGURED YOU OUT, STUPID DOOR.
Hmm, I can also meet with a few of those people again at 9 to have drinks, but I don't know if I want to. They warned us about going out at night, I just don't know if I want to mess with it so quickly... even though it is my birthday... but there will definitely be people going out tomorrow night. ahhhh what to doooo

Oh! And I got a cell phone today. I went to The Phone House expecting them to have someone who speaks English, cause I was told there would be one there, but there wasn't, so I had to do it in French. It wasn't too bad. I had to get one of those phones that you do by prepaid card... the year-contract ones can't be canceled early. My phone isn't that great, but it'll do. About 40 euros for the phone, then two 20-euro prepaid cards. What's really frustrating is that when I set the time, I also had to set the date, but I pressed the wrong button and it kept the default date, 1-1-05. AND NOW I CAN'T ACCESS THE DATE ANYMORE TO CHANGE IT! Even if I set the time again, it doesn't ask me for the date like before. I ONLY HAD ONE CHANCE, APPARENTLY, AND I MISSED IT! Not cool, phone. Not. Cool.

haaahaha, I still love this cat. She loves to come rub her face all up in mine, and then walk by and brush her tail against my face, purring happily all the while. She also likes to walk into any open bags on the floor, which is hilarious. I ate dinner with my family last night for the first time, and it was weird. My host sister (age 15) was mad about something, so she kept slamming stuff around, and my host mom asked me some questions really fast so I had to be all "uh.... what?" like two or three times, which is so embarrassing, and it really felt like they were more demanding that I be at their level than understanding that I wasn't. Food was interesting, first this green soup with red peppers in it. I don't like red peppers so I didn't like the taste but I ate it anyway (minus the peppers). Then Indian rice. And bread, of course. Did you know bread in France does not go on your plate? There is always bread to accompany dinner, ALWAYS, but it goes to the left of your plate. On the table itself. I didn't know this last night, but I know it now. So weird. Oh, and we had wine. Then they had a cake for my birthday which was really nice but that also felt semi forced. I dunno. It's an adjustment period. The cat makes up for it.

I only get dinner 2 nights a week, and as my host parents are out of town tonight, I have a feeling tonight will be one of those nights. But I don't know where to go around here... so I might be eating my leftover airplane peanuts/starving. I'm not hungry yet, but I will be. I wonder if my host brother and sister are planning to make food and if they will offer me some.. hmmmm...

ahhh, I officially love this cat! She is super friendly, lets me pick her up and carry her around, and is just an all-around awesome cat. Right now as I am typing this she is on the desk, rubbing up against my laptop, walking around, purring, letting me pet her. Plus she's named after an Egyptian goddess (Isis). WHAT A GREAT CAT :D

ANNNND... my Métro station that I'll be using to get to IES every day (Trocadéro)? Totally in front of the Eiffel Tower. So I saw it today, and I will see it every day! :DDD You know... it's smaller than Tokyo Tower. Actually, smaller than I expected in general! But yes, the Eiffel Tower is within walking distance of where I live. :D

Métro!! is so cool. And different, but the same, but different. It's so... funky... It closes at 1 a.m. ish to reopen at 5:30 a.m., just like Japan! Except you're not even supposed to take the Métro home that late anyway, it's dangerous and all. blah blah... though I do miss the safety of Japan. Girls were warned about two things today: 1) don't talk to strange men, 2) don't stumble around drunk in the streets. Hahaha! But yeah, I love trains, and so I love the Métro. From here to IES it's a straight shot, no transfers, taking about 15-20 minutes, so not very long at all, which is almost disappointing. What's weird is that one ticket gets you anywhere... no different tickets depending on where you're going. So strange to me...

The people here (at least in the L-Z orientation half) are like 2/3 girls... but that's kind of as I expected. I talked to some of them during the break, they seem cool... but just like I thought, these are different types of people than Tokyo people. hmmm...

Another different thing is that inside the IES center, it is 100% French. Even amongst ourselves. We were all exhorted on how important that is to learning French, which is "why we're here, isn't it?" That's pretty hardcore, makes Tokyo seem lazy in comparison... but then again, there's a minimum of semesters of French required to come here, whereas in Japan everyone's levels fluctuated wildly, and some had none at all. It just wouldn't have been possible there, I guess.
I can't WAIT until brush-up classes (or "propédeutique" hee) start next week. Ooh, we also got a Louvre pass!! It's good for a whole year and pretty much I can go any day I want for free, no waiting in line. There's other advantages too. THIS ROCKS!! :D

Oh... my god. My host mom told me this morning we were going to have dinner together. IT IS NOW 7:45 AND WHERE IS THE FOOOOOOD?? I didn't really eat lunch (just a few croissants during our break) so I AM STARVINGGGGGGG, ahhhhhhh... is this a French thing, eating so late? WHAT IS GOING ONNNNNNNNN

I'M HEEEERRRRREE. wah, I hate the language barrier already. I can't WAIT to get back into French classes and brush up ASAP.

Ummm. I didn't get taken in by a faux taxi!! Although I was totally approached like 3 times for one. NOO, I SEE RIGHT THROUGH YOUR SCAM! I might have gotten gypped on my money conversion, though. I didn't see the thing about conversion places often charging hefty fees, so although it says $300 should be 231 euros, I only got 199. wah! Oh well. It's ATMs from here on out anyway. The taxi ride was fine, only 35 euros but we didn't pass any famous sights or anything.

My host family lives in the coolest rickety old apartment EVER. My room is huge!! The whole place is huge! The cat rocks, I love this cat. She looks just like R.C., my old cat, but 10 times more inquisitive. When I arrived she was the first one into my room sniffing around and checking everything out. They seem really nice, I wish my French was better!! ahhhh

Because of the ice in Houston (where I had my connecting flight), my plane definitely sat on the tarmac for like 4 hours before we took off. But then we fiiiinally did! I didn't sleep at all on the plane, I was too nervous. I would look at the map and be all "Ooh, we're flying over New York! Boston! The Atlantic! I have never been here before! We're really close to Ireland right now! Ooh, there's France!!" and I just couldn't settle down.

Hence, when I got to my homestay, I pretty much immediately fell asleep. That was 3 pm, then I essentially slept until 6 or 7 the next morning.

I was also really dreading getting here, like I seriously didn't want the flight to be over, but now that I'm here I'm feeling pretty giddy and all EEE I'M IN EUROPE FOR THE FIRST TIME WTF WTF IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING. I'm also pretty proud of myself for flying (internationally!) alone and doing all of that completely on my own. That's really the first time that's ever happened (I flew back from Japan alone, but going there I was with Casey and the other AC people). I'd say I was brave, but I also didn't have a choice!!

Oh yeah!! Breakfast!! My cereal had CHOCOLATE IN IT! And my host dad showed me how to make French press coffee! I only knew it was a French press because Aly had a French press last semester (thanks, Aly!! hahaha). And there was bread too! It was soooo good!

Today around noon or after I shall head out for IES offices to have orientation... first time riding the Metro!! I'm looking forward to it, though, I have missed trains! I hoooope there are cool people theeeere for me to be frieeeends wiiiitthhh...

I have seen nothing famous here so far, although I am dying to! Museeuummsss! It's weird, being in a place with actual landmarks to see. There's really no staple landmarks that you HAVE TO SEE in Tokyo... ooh, I can't wait until I know the neighborhoods here as well as the Tokyo ones!