Day Two: Marrons Chauds!

Le Grand Palais

Hello!

So, "Day Two"; day one being yesterday, since the day was spent on a plane/arriving/sleeping/eating, most of which actually happened in FRANCE! (Therefore it counts.)

Today was pretty eventful, if you ignore the fact that Dad and I completely disregarded the alarm clock we set on my running watch. It's just our luck that the only clocks we have in our room are my computer and our watches. We don't have an alarm clock in here, and we both neglected to consider that his phone WOULDN'T work here, so we can't use it as an alarm clock. We definitely meant to wake up at 6:30, but ended up sleeping until 10:something, and didn't go anywhere until it was nearly noon. Again, whoops.

Waiting for the train. (My hair is in the beret cuz it was still wet.)

We managed to make our way over to Châtelet-Les Halles via Metro, which is the train station underneath the mall. The mall ("centre commercial") is called Forum des Halles, which is 4 (maybe? I didn't count...) stories of shopping. I swear the idea is to trap you in there and make you shop for the rest of eternity. Luckily, WE ESCAPED (after going in circles)!

It's really cool, though; there's escalators all over, and a maze of hallways leading to all different stores. H&M, Pimkie, Gap (go to France to buy American clothes? Yes. Of course! It was REALLY BORING in there though, and the sizes were even more confusing than everywhere else. Fail.), and other stores. What's really cool about Les Halles is that there is this courtyard-like area, not that we actually went out there since it was wet. xD

I'm not sure what that building is behind me, but it looked cool.

See?So very modern!

We ended up at H&M, mostly because I recognized the name of store, and although it is in the United States, there aren't any near home. They had some pretty strange things in there, I have to say. There were far too many pairs of sparkly leggings (some multicolored) that were no more than leggings COVERED in sequins.

They had some truly bizarre jeans too; patchwork jeans, jeans with no less than 50 zippers or studs, jeans that were actually leggings that looked like jeans (whaaaat?), shiny leather (hello, 1980s) pants, and in the men's section, they had jeans that had paint all over them! (My comment: I bet *insert name of relative that paints* has a pair of those! FOR CHEAP!) They had "man-pris" (Capris! For men! Apparently quite popular... I still can't convince any Americans of that, though), which are still very amusing.

Did you know that Levis are like... DESIGNER jeans?! I was unaware of that fact. You could buy some and say they're the hottest style in Europe now! You could even call them your "Parisian pants"! :O

So, after that, Dad and I went to lunch at this little cafe; Café Etienne. The waitress didn't understand much English, but with my feeble attempts at speaking French (this is what happens after five-ish years of français in America; you still can't speak it fluently!) and dad's ridiculous gestures, we managed to get by. Lunch ended up being an hour or more; the waitress kept wandering off, but the food was good (especially the fries. *insert pun about the best french fries being French*)!

I'm not sure if this is standard, but les toilettes were co-ed. Each one was this tiny toilet with it's own door and motion-sensor light so you had to move or else you'd be stuck in the dark. Awkward French bathrooms are funny.

This is the bathroom in our hotel room. Typically small.

By then, it was raining harder, so we braved the wind to locate a place to exchange our dollars for euros and finding a BNP Paribas, the bank I'm allowed to withdraw from here. The teller told us directions to a place to exchange our money, but we of course got lost and ended up going to the Banque de France; the gendarmes let us in, and then we discovered that it was basically the Federal Reserve of France. For future reference, the people in there are quite nice and didn't yell at us for being stupid Americans who don't know where to exchange money.

The courtyard behind the entrance to the Louvre.

Quite by accident, we wandered into this little hallway of the Louvre (not the musée, but the building said "Louvre" on it so...*shrug*) that had a currency exchange. Now I'm not carrying around $5 US anymore, yay! Unfortunately, that was about 3,31 (, = . as far as money; odd) euros (when I figure out the alt-command for that symbol, I'll use it. Until then... EUROS), and as in any city, 3,31 can't get you ANYTHING. [Actually, you can get postcards for cheap! YAY! Or give money to the street performers! Like the accordion guy!]

We wandered a bit more until we were in front of the Louvre, and took pictures. (I'll include some, including one of me making a completely ridiculous face!) Dad decided that I shouldn't be the only one with pictures taken of me, so I have a few of him, too.

~~PAUSE FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERLUDE. (Pretend there is music here to make the time pass more quickly. In fact, here (it's a French Christmas carol-- "Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle")!~~

*weird face* (I think I was saying "AHH! My hair! Don't take a picture of that!")

Dad: "There's never any pictures of me..."

Dad wanted a picture with the policemen-dudes, but we were afraid to ask since they had guns.

The entrance to the Louvre from the side (and behind).

After we decided NOT to go to the Louvre since it only had an hour more while it was open (it definitely takes longer than an hour to tour it), we wandered through le jardin du carrousel et le jardin des tuileries, and stumbled across a "Sandemans" tour, which is a free walking tour in English! Each tour lasts about 3 hours, and takes you to well-known monuments. The guide is usually a student living in that particular city, and they love the city.

They know lots of little tidbits about the city and monuments; though the tours don't actually get you into monuments and such, they are a good way to get to know your way around and figure out places to go. Sandemans tours (such as "New Paris") are in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Prague, Jerusalem, Madrid, and Paris. I highly recommend them if you go to any of those cities (we've taken the ones in Munich, Berlin, and Paris). :)

With the tour, we wandered through Place de la Concorde, where the obelisk stands where people were guillotined during the French Revolution, through some of the Christmas market along the Champs-Élysées and to le petit palais and le grande palais. We learned some interesting things about World War II and one Nazi general who basically saved the city (Hitler wanted him to destroy Paris, rather than let it fall to the Allied forces). Apparently, the French don't like to acknowledge that this general (or the Allies) were the main reason that they regained Paris. (SHH! Don't tell them I told you!)

Christmas market & our tour group.

Behind me: Place de la Concorde and the HUGE ferris wheel.Can we *not* be hit by cars? Please, dad?

After the tour ended, Dad and I wandered back through the Christmas market. We bought marrons chauds, which are roasted chestnuts (I should have guessed what the name was, actually: "marron" is the french word for 'chestnut' and is often used as 'brown', and "chaud" means hot... so, hot chestnuts); you can't get those in the US because chestnut trees are basically endangered, which is sad because they are YUMMY! A bit sweet, but soft; the flavor is different than that of any other roasted nuts. (-_- if you're laughing at that)

After that, we had some chocolat chaud, which was definitely a treat-- it was a lot more substantial and rich than the kind we make at home with dry mix. I have no idea what they did to it, but I was quite pleased! It didn't even have MARSHMALLOWS or WHIPPED CREAM! *gasp*

You can't see 'em, but I'm holding a small cone-thing of chestnuts. (I dropped some later, whoops.)

(Oh, right! I forgot about the fresh smoked salmon! I think it was called saumon norvège, and it came with crème fraîche et salade [which is really just a large piece of lettuce?] on a baguette. I still don't know what crème fraîche is, but it's quite good.)

By then, it was raining pretty hard, so of course we chose to walk to across the river to a Metro station. And we got lost. And ran in circles. And rode two different buses, and three different trains, as well as walked through the same block far too often. We agreed that being lost in Paris is a lot more fun than being lost anywhere else; for one, despite the rain and generally miserable weather, Paris is still "The City of Light."

Pont something-or-other. La Tour Eiffel in the background.

Finalement, we found our way back to the hotel. I guess that's the end of Day Two, since I consider Messe de Minuit part of Day Three (even though we got there at 9:something). So, you'll hear about that later today after we have MORE adventures!

Montmartre et Musée d'Orsay later today! (with far too many pictures, of course!)

Speaking of pictures... here's a few more! YAY! :DBehind me is the National Assembly. (This is where we began to get lost)We don't know what this building was, but it was so bright that we figured it must be something special.

Place de la Concorde and the Ferris Wheel from the other side of the Seine.

Un bateau mouche (I don't know what they are 'en anglais').

Merry Christmas from Paris!
-Aly

P.S. If you haven't figured it out yet, you can CLICK on each picture to see the full-sized version! :)

Day Zero: Takeoff

*waves*!

Bonjour, PARIS!

So, it's 2:40 pm here in Paris, and only 8:40 in the morning at home, which means that most people should still be asleep. My stomach is telling me that it's foodtime, but the time of day disagrees. xD [McDonald's is basically downstairs. Disgusting fatty food, anyone?]

Since it is now Day One of my Grand French Adventure, I have observations to share! YAY! (Oh, and pictures. Mostly taken by my dad, despite my protests.) This post is "Day Zero" because the day we left is a different day than when we arrived... being at the airport can't be considered Day One since it's not in France. In case you were a bit confused there.

We left at 12:20 (LATE!) from our house yesterday, and magically we made it to Charlotte on time. I had to leave the HUGE jar of gumballs in Dad's car, which means they'll be going back with him to New Orleans rather than to Molly, who would appreciate their deliciousness fully. Whooooops.

(above: plane to Pennsylvania)

Anyway, I slept the entire plane ride from Charlotte to Philadelphia; the airport in Philadelphia is HUGE, which made hauling my bursting-at-the-seams laptop bag (blame all the secret chocolate) and awkwardly-shaped "Europe bag" (it's not actually called that; we just happened to buy bags like this two years ago for our Europe trip in '07... thus, "Europe bag") really frustratingly painful.

I watched Pink Panther in the airport until it was time to go again, and Dad insisted on taking pictures of the plane and me.

That is definitely a dolphin-shaped travel pillow. *is cool*

I watched Julie & Julia; unfortunately, that was the most interesting thing I did the entire flight . We actually noticed when we flew over Great Britain, and attempted to take pictures through the windows when we spotted France, which didn't work that well due to the fact that we were (as always), near the wing. I'll put one in here anyway, since I don't know what else to do with all these pictures. =P

(See it? Right there? That's France. It's snowy!)

After we arrived in Paris, we had to find a photobooth ("photomaton") to take passport-style pictures. The machine said to have a "neutral" expression, and I was looking really rough after all the traveling, what with the awkward sleeping positions and such. I SHOULD put a picture of the AWFUL pictures on here, but that would just be embarrassing, so you'll have to live with a picture my dad took of me on the train to Gare d'Austerlitz; you can still tell that I'm a mess.

So, onto the less-boring stuff! :D [There aren't many pictures yet! YAY!]

Mass transportation is pretty cool. Other than the expected smell-of-gross that permeates the underground in every city, it's still an easy way to travel. There are so many people on the train; I felt really obviously not-French, dragging around far-too-heavy bags and trying not to trip on the stairs.

There are some really interesting characters on the Metro; in our car, there was this guy that was placing little keychains (or were they bottle-openers?) on empty seats with these tiny cards written in both English and French: "Je suis dourd(e): I am dumb and deaf" that asked the occupants of that seat to buy the trinket for 3 euros. Another guy just stood up from his seat with an accordion and started playing. It was pretty cool; I felt really bad that I couldn't give him any money (don't have cash on me), because he was quite good and as he moved along to the next car to busk (British term, but I like it), he just looked really disheartened.

The tracks are surrounded by cement walls, I guess to keep the noise contained (the trains are LOUD), which are coated in all sorts of graffiti. There's some that's stereotypical; the huge, blocky letters and such, but many are quite artistic-- we saw some that were splatter-painted, colorful, or have a message of love. I think that's really cool; I like to just sit and watch it all go by, trying to read the letters and figure out what it says, or the type of person that would write each spray-paint message.

Last time I was in Europe I did the same thing; I always find myself fascinated by what I would call "beautiful" ruins. They're not necessarily ruins, but there are these areas of town that are so grimy and dingy, so old or forgotten, that they have this charm to them. I like to imagine that somebody will see the beauty in the building or the area and make it as beautiful to everyone as it would have been originally.

There are advertisements for "American" products everywhere! Companies I didn't know where French have these HUGE factories along the Metro lines; LG, Samsung, Siemens, Sanyo... I'm often surprised by such things. There are posters EVERYWHERE for Pas si simple, which is the new movie with Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, and Alec Baldwin. I think I'll try to go see it while I'm here, though I know it'll be REALLY WEIRD seeing familiar actors "speaking" in French. I've noticed from the few American movies with French voice-overs that are currently playing on TV that they do a good job with that, so we'll see.

WELL, THAT'S ALL. (Sorry about not-interestingness.)

BYE!
-Aly

P.S. I can assure you that the rest of the day was not that interesting, either. We walked around, ate food (of the cheapest-we-could-find variety), and didn't actually find me a cell phone or a bookstore that had the books Dad and I are looking for. It's REALLY COLD here!

Goodbyes

Hello!

My plane will be leaving at 4:00(ish?) today to go to Philadelphia, and then on to Paris. We're flying out of Charlotte, so we're actually leaving a bit earlier than planned due to the fact that HOLIDAY TRAFFIC EATS TIME as if it were dessert.

At any rate, I'm really excited to leave, but honestly, the worst part of leaving is saying goodbye.

It's hard to say "goodbye" to somebody that you have every intention of staying in touch with. At the same time, there's that tiny pessimistic side that keeps reminding you that "things can never be the same". My goodbyes to friends go something like this:

Friend: Well, I guess this is it.
Me: Yeah. Kinda.
Friend: Why can't you just stay?
Me: I can't! I've been planning this for too long.
Friend: *sigh* I know. I'm just gonna miss you.
Me: Yeah, me too. *hugs*
Friend: Bye!
Me: See you in six months! Internet stalking! *waves and leaves*
(In my head-- Friend: Well, that was fail.)

Yeah.

It's not only the goodbyes to friends that are the problem, but when I leave for any trip that is longer than a few weeks (example: Europe trip in '07), I tend to say goodbye to everything (in my head at least).

I guess it's understandable, though. (Hopefully. If it's not then I'm just crazy and I like to think that I'm sane enough.)

As I walk from wherever I am for the last time (or drive. TECHNICALITY!), I'm watching everything go by (or that I pass by), and I'm trying not to wave to whatever it is. I will actually say it out loud a few times, and then look around anxiously to check that nobody is laughing at me. xD

So, as I leave my house today, I will be saying goodbye to everything-- when I get back, we won't be living here anymore, which makes this even more strange. This is the last time I'll be in my room, the last shower I take in my bathroom... so on and so forth. However strange and silly it is, I will miss sleeping in my own familiar bed with my pillows, driving my car (FRED!) around, and going to La Carretta with friends for lunch on far too many weekends. [No worries though! I'll miss my friends/family a lot more!]

I was going to send out a One Final Text from my phone letting everybody know that I love them and I'll miss them, but I figured it'll be easier to just write it in blog form and hope that you get it :)

Here are my final goodbyes:

To my "Last Brekkie" friends-- I'm glad we got to hang out one more time, and I expect extremely enthusiastic emails from you all the time.

To the friends that attended "The Last Lunch" -- I left with a bang! I'm glad you were there to laugh at me :)

To those of you that "Braved the Storm" to come to my birthday party -- I'm glad you didn't die on the way, and I'm glad we got to hang out and act like crazy people for a few hours. Your gifts were amazing, your creativity (ha. picture telephone...) was hysterical, and I'm sorry that my mom took far too many pictures. Don't worry, some of them are up on facebook already!

To all my other close friends, acquaintances, etc. -- If I didn't get to see you before I left, I'm sorry. It doesn't mean I love you any less. I WILL find ways to keep in touch.

I wish everybody a WONDERFUL Holiday season, a fantastic six months, and a great day.


SEE YOU IN SIX MONTHS!
-Aly

Parties and a Puck

Hello!

I'm currently sprawled out on the floor of my room (which I just cleaned from all the art supplies that Molly, Matt, and I managed to get all over in the process of making Noelle's birthday present), surrounded by roughly a third of my closet. I'm packing, but right now I'm in the stage of "Sorting".
[It's really not that exciting, and I'd much rather be bowling with Molly and Claire right now.]

Yesterday was amazing. Despite the foul weather, a fair number of people managed to make it to my birthday party. I'm really sad that some of my really close friends couldn't make it for some reason or another (being offered a job by the CIA? Okay then. See ya next July?), I plan on going out to lunch on Monday if anybody's around and wants to come join in.

I have to find time to write thank-you's to everybody for their wonderful gifts, but I must admit, I don't remember who gave me what. Probably because I was consuming a lot of sugar and was a bit rushed through that entire process. So, if you were there and brought food/soda/presents, then PLEASE remind me so I can thank you properly. (Note: that = fail)

Besides my own party, I went to Noelle's surprise birthday party with Molly and Matt. We went to see Avatar, and although I wasn't paying enough attention to enjoy the beginning fully (didn't help that I was talking), I did enjoy it quite a bit. Let's go to Smurf Space-Africa!

[I'm one of those terrible people that talks and laughs obnoxiously loud in movie theaters. Whoops. I can't help it that I was reminded of a lot of random things, like Disney songs, and I was between two people that had funny things to say. Grrr...]

Après ça, we ended up at Noelle's house (awkward moment: when you say goodbye-for-six-months to somebody and then you see them a few hours later). We ate another funfetti cake (so sugary. so yummy. also quite delicious as partial-breakfast), played Never Have I Ever, and I guess that was about it.

OH! That reminds me. The art supplies in my room went to decorating a duck that Margaret, Alex, and I were trying to use for our physics project. We covered it in puff balls. It is now named Puck, and Noelle loves him. :)

I could say a lot of really awkward things about yesterday because they're quite humorous, but the idea is that yesterday/today was a lot of fun.

Now I'm home; going caroling with Tori, Molly, and Kat later (maybe Claire, too, since I couldn't go bowling). My brother and mom decided to be awesome and got me DVDs-- Blu-ray Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (unexpected move on his part; we don't buy each other presents, much less with our own money :P!), Les Misérables (if you don't get why that's so awesome, read this, although that doesn't help that much. mostly, happy thoughts), and The Aristocats (I'm working on getting all the Disney "classics" on DVD, since I only have them on VHS).

RIGHT. Now that I've updated you will all sorts of insignificant details and anecdotes, here's the OTHER motive for this post.

If I haven't gotten you a card with my address, skype, and email on it, then I'm sorry! I kept forgetting to hand them out. I can give you all that information, you just need to email me at alyinfrance@gmail.com. (well, fine, that's my email right there. SKYPE AND ADDRESS, THEN.)

Since I don't have most people's email/skype/address, if you want to keep in touch with me by any of those means, please EMAIL ME your information (PLEASE remember to include your name!). If you give me your address, I'll definitely try to send you a postcard/letter from France! (I know you want to. Everybody loves snail mail, yeah?)

If I haven't gotten to see you and you want to hang out ONE FINAL TIME before I leave, please let me know and I'll find a way to get you details about the plans for Monday (lunch).

-Aly

Five Days to Go

...but I hate leaving you.

This week has been insanity, as predicted.

Insignificant Numbers

Hello!

It's nearly 12:00, so that means it's NEARLY my birthday (if we're going to be precise, however, 1 or so in the morning)! YAY FOR BEING 17!
[Honestly, there's not that much interestingness to it, I would guess; R-rated movies? Whoopdedoo?]

HOWEVER, today (by the time you read this, that is), means that it is the Fourteenth... and France is a liiiiiittle... 8 days, since I am, in fact, counting... over a week away!

By now I'm really excited because I'm not afraid of having a bad experience. Through my dad's persistence and the help of a bunch of people, we finally found a host family for me to stay with while I'm there.

My father contacted Rick from Oregon, who wrote a blog about his family's experience living a year in france; Rick forwarded the message to friends in Fréjus, where the message was forwarded to other families, including my host family, the Chasson's. They graciously offered to host me for the entire stay; though I may be sleeping in the grandmother's house each night. I've been in touch with a boy from Washington, DC who stayed with them last summer; he says they're very kind! So, it should be a good solution.

I'll be included on family outings and the like, and I'll go to Lycée Albert Camus as originally planned. I'll have to ride the bus, but that's all just part of the experience so I have no qualms.

At any rate, France is coming up really quickly, and I'm ridiculously excited. I can't wait to go, but part of me isn't fully ready yet. I haven't spent nearly enough time with the friends that I may not see again for a long time; particularly the seniors that have been some of my great friends since they were "my sophomores".

I convinced Mom to let me have a Going Away/Birthday party on Friday, so I'm looking forward to that quite a bit. :)

On the 22nd, Dad and I will be leaving Winston around noon to drive to Charlotte. Our flight is at four (we're flying to Philadelphia); from there, we'll fly to Paris. I think we'll be there until the 29th, at which point we'll be travelling by train down to Fréjus!

In other news:
I've become slightly obsessed with the show Doctor Who, which I've been watching on youtube lately (so that I can understand the Chameleon Circuit songs). This isn't very helpful to me getting anything at all done, but it's not like I mind killing my brain via sorta-television like other people. :3

Besides, FRANCE IS SOON! So my brain may or may not have gone on vacation already. Shhhh.

♥,
-Aly

Apple Juice

Hello!

It's obviously not Tuesday anymore, but today was uninteresting (again), except for watching Astérix (sp?) in French class. It's not actually in French, but it's a French cartoon and is based on an actual character from French history. But yeah; it's good. :)

So, because of THAT and the fact that I wrote this when I had nothing to do in math yesterday, I'll just type it up and you'll have to pretend that it is still Tuesday.

It's Tuesday, which means Molly and I had "Fattie Club" this morning (you can join! Molly and I are co-presidents; she's the founder. xD). We went to Chick-Fil-A and bought a wonderfully greasy and unhealthy breakfast, including apple juice boxes. xD No strange and slightly embarrassing '90s music, for once!

Although by normal standards, today has been unexciting, I'm quite pleased to say that it has been infinitely better than yesterday. [note: Monday was a terrible day, even by Monday-standards, and it only got wayyyy better after I won NaNo.]

We've started sicussing gender inequality in Sociology; my class seems to be largely conservative, making the conversation feel like beating my head against a brick wall for hours. I don't understand how they can hold such double standards, especially after the last unit (race inequality). They say somehing, and then contradict themselves in the next statement.

What they don't seem to grasp is that people are STILL people, no matter what race or gender or sexual orientation. Your discomfort with their differences should not force people to repress themselves for fear of judgement, discrimination, or harassment.

With any luck, as we progress through this unit, my classmates will find themselves considering their opinions more thoroughly and opening their minds.

Also, YAY MOLLY for posting on MAlly Chat on Monday! I didn't notice until today (back to present tense). Go check it out! MAlly Chat has a lot more than this blog; it's a lot more randomness and fun.

Hope you're having a good week!
-Aly

The Magical Sound of Victory

Tired, but happy. Winner's certificate :D

HI!

I couldn't resist, I admit it.

I'm far too excited to NOT blog about this.

For those of you that don't know it, November is National Novel Writing Month.

For me and eight to fifteen (I lost count) of my friends, that meant we spent a month slaving over a novel, which is defined by NaNo as having 50,000 words.

It sounds like a lot of words, and it definitely is. It's a huge project to undertake, and with everything else going on in November (such as life. That's a rather distracting thing.), it takes a lot of wise procrastination and even more not-so-kind nudging from friends to survive. At least, it did for me.

Over the course of the last two weeks, I have given up on my novel at least six times, fallen behind more than 11,000 words, and I've also had three days of extremely high word counts. It's been rough, but I made it. At 11:36 or something around there, I "crossed the finish line" with 50,207 words (though the website tells me it was only 50,178; still not sure why, exactly).

The moment of victory. Moreorless.

Since that moment, I cannot stop smiling. I'm filled with joy and I can't sit still; it's absolutely ridiculous. It feels like I just ran a marathon that I didn't train for in the slightest, during which I fell down enough that my entire body is covered in bruises and sore, but somewhere near the end, I go this KICK, and it held... for miles and miles. And somehow, despite the entire race and the aggravation about the quality of the run, I MADE IT. I'm not quite "finished" all the way, but I did it. I made it to my goal, and this may be the biggest thing I've accomplished in my entire life, by my standards.

I have a great feeling about tomorrow, or rather... today. Even though I can't focus on anything at all that isn't feeling loopily happy, I DID IT. I can do anything with the feeling I have right now.

Bring it on, December. Ups and downs and whatever's in store. I'm going to finish this novel this month-- fix it up and make it acceptable. It'll be great. And I'm certain that waiting on that finish line will be the same people that kicked, dragged, and shoved me through November.

Thank you SO VERY MUCH if you were one of those people.

I love you, and in case you're wondering-- that sound you hear? That would be the Magical Sound of VICTORY!

-Aly