I can't wait

for friends and family and christmas! and making music and dance parties and PEDROs and sunsets and love and loko and piano and crack! and roadtrips
and sunshine!

yay

I HATE SLEEPING ALONE!!

and I hate that the metro closes at night, and I hate that it is impossible to get a taxi, and I hate that it is Freeezing! and I hate that the system is so inefficient and I hate that everything is so expensive, and I hate that I can't walk at night alone, and I hate assholes and I hate the differentiation between TU and VOUS, fucking FUCK YOU!!  How fucking pretentious!

France's motto :  Hello, how can I most inconvenience you?......formally

Talking shit on France for the past day has been thoroughly entertaining however, so I can thank it for that...The Christmas market was cute too I guess...And the snow is pretty...

"This town is full of cock-suckers, but when you begin to hate it, that's when you're becoming a real Parisian."

Waking up

at 7 is definitely more difficult if you stay up till 4 doing practically nothing.  Quelle idiote, Alexandra.

Hopefully this ain't no honeymoon

I figured it's about time I write a little excerpt about my job.  If you didn't know, which I hope you do, I came to live in Paris to teach English in primary schools and...I love it!  I actually can't believe how much I like it, it's kind of revolting in that 'Ew, how can anyone be that excited about their job kind of way'.  The kids are so adorable and so excited!  "Regarde! C'est le prof d'anglais!'  They try so hard to say things that seem almost impossible for them to say.  Par exemple:  three, Thursday, this, frog, gorilla, purple...see the patterns?  lol.
Anyways, I love them and I love their enthusiasm.  I feel sure that the hardest part of teaching must be to get your kids excited about what they're learning.  I seem to have lucked out and been handed classes full of les enfants surexcités.  Et j'aime bien. 
It also helps that the teachers are awesome and involved and make the lessons work.  I work at 3 schools in the banlieu (the suburbs...except suburbs in french doesn't have the same connotation as in the states...It's interesting, rich people here live in the cities and the poor live on the outskirts, quite the opposite from the word's meaning in America).  I digress.  Je veux dire that in the poorest school I have the most problems because the teachers are not as involved in the lessons.  I teach moi-même.  It's cool to know that I can.  Keeping kids focused is definitely a skill I have not mastered, I have enough difficulty keeping myself focused.  Clearly.
My main school however is awesome, all my colleagues are great.  La chance.
So, today I am thankful for my job, oddly enough.  Didn't see that one coming.

The dancer

So, I'm intrigued. What do you see? When I was a kid I was 'left-brained' but, now I can only see this girl spin clockwise. I wanna make her spin both ways!

Right brain Left brain

So I took a test and voilà. Cool.

Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz The higher of these two numbers below indicates which side of your brain has dominance in your life.  Realizing your right brain/left brain tendency will help you interact with and understand others. Left Brain Dominance: (16) Right Brain Dominance: (16) Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz

LoL - ça veut dire - Lots of Love and giggles

thomas mccolgan to me

Hey, where are you? We have not heard from you in a while. We do not even know your address. How do we know that you are ok if you do not email? If you can't skype at least send us an email everyday. Mom thinks you've been kidnapped and sold into white slavery; I think you are probably in the hospital on life support after being run over by a truck. luvdad

The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition (RAC mix)

Introversion

I've realized I am too content just laying in bed all day.  It annoys me, but I can't say I don't enjoy it...and I can't say I have the motivation to change it.
So yesterday, I talked myself into going to the grocery store the lady I live with recommended.  It was a little out of the way and my housemate said she didn't find it when she looked, so I checked the map twice and set off.  I was on my merry way with my -oh so american- Jansport backpack, enjoying exploring my little town outside of Paris (Montreuil) for the first time.  It was about ten minutes into my stroll when I realized: 1 There were barely any people in the streets and 2:  Everything was closed.
Alas, it was Sunday.  Merde une fois!  I find it hard to keep track of the days here.  I decided I would continue, as I was half way there.  I could at least see if I could find the place.  There was also the possibility that it would be open because it's a chain.  I found it!  But no dice, it had closed at 12:45, and it was currently 2.  Any other day, the store would have been closed from 12-2 and ready for me at that time; however, any other day is not Sunday.  Sunday Funday!  I guess it is for the people who would have been working at the store otherwise.  Good thing I got out of bed.

Italia!

Italy:  Arrived at midnight and needed to take a taxi to the drag party I was about to join Justine (fellow teaching assistant in Paris) and her gay Italian friend Valerio & Co at.  I had exactly 10 euros that Danny so graciously loaned me for this purpose, and I was stoked when the put the the taxi driver put the counter to 10euros.  However, I was shocked when after 5 minutes the counter started going up.  Oh no.  I asked if it was far...euh, je veux dire 'pantomimed how far' and he said 'cinque minuti'.  I was fucked.  But, I was not about to have him drop me off in the middle of nowhere, at midnight, in a city I've never been to so I just said OK.
When we arrived at the club (Cassero) and I was missing 5 euros Mr. Taximan was unamused.  He explained to me in Italian pantomime 10x that I was missing 5 euros.  And I explained back to him 5x in pantomime English, that I didn't have any more money and my phone wasn't working (of course it wasn't) so I could go find my friends if he really needed the 5 euros.  It was only a putain de 7 minute ride!  But I wasn't really in a position to argue the price.  He didn't speak a word of English and I only knew numbers in Italian.
I got out of the car to go find Justine and Valerio closely followed by a yelling taxi man who was most likely rallying to have me burned at the stake.  There were quite a few people in line and the bouncer said I was not allowed in until I paid the taxi.  Balls.  Luckily, Justine heard the commotion and saved me!  The taxi man got paid and we went in through the - devoid of evil lines - VIP section.  Quite entrance.
And what a party!  I didn't take any pictures, but I felt like I was in Rocky Horror; it was awesome.  The GenderBender party was quite the success and Justine and I fully enjoyed our free long-islands from the lesbian bartenders.  Grazie

After Bologna it was off to my old stomping grounds.  Firenze!

My favorite place in the world :)

After Florence, we visited Lucca.  I will add more photos once Justine posts them.  Her camera captured it better.  There is also a photo for Lila she has and this is my reminder to post it!

Fall is so pretty!

We spent the night in Pisa (bc Justine had never been) and experienced my least favorite couchsurfing to date.  There was a mosquito in my ear the whole night!  And the guy was smoking in the room.  Torture, I didn't sleep.  The next day however, was fantastic.  Justine is an avid horse rider/professional so we decided to ride horses through the Tuscan hills to a castle in Chianti.  How romantic!  It was beautiful and I will post pictures when I get them from her.

After Chianti, it was back to Bologna et puis Paris.  Quick little vacation from the work that still hasn't started for me in France !

Italia:  The land of cappuccinos...

...naked men...

...and praying little girls. 

La Fête de Dictators

 

Danny était le Disco Hitler et moi j'étais La Mort.  Il était aussi Stalin, Mao et Indira Ghandi entre autres.  J'aime bien les fête déguisé, surtout en France!  C'était une soirée juste avant le Halloween.  Le trajet toute seule dans le metro était amusant.  Les parents ont disait "wow!  tu m'as fait peur!" en riant et les enfants ont disait "mais maman!  Halloween est demain!"  Mais les enfants s'ont trompé.  À Santa Barbara, c'est vachement une fête qui dure toute la semaine.  Et quelle grande fête!  Ohhh SB

Les Affiches

Long live Fascisme

Adolf Hitler was a good piano player.

Tasers are good; Machetes are better!

Je m'appelle Alexandra la Commandante, et j'approuve ce message.

However, I do not approve of the mid-term election results.

Loko for Katie at Yeasayer :)

 

Lady Gaga - Alejandro

Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love

Le bisou à Paris

Oct 21, 2010

Yeasayer - I Remember

Gorillaz-On Melancholy Hill

STRIKE

It's interesting.  It seems the French are able to hold successful strikes, unlike Americans, because they don't have thousands of people so desperate for work that they will work for any amount.  In America, you can't threaten to strike because if you do, someone else will just take your job and you will have nothing.  Not so in France apparently...not that there aren't hundreds of people searching/willing to work here, but they will not get hired.  Here it's a combination of strong unions, racism and anti-immigrant working laws that keep the French able to fight back.  Workers still rule over here; unfortunately, so does racism.

http://www.leprogres.fr/fr/article/4015328/La-place-Bellecour-coupee-du-monde.html

There's one answer; it's at the back...and don't look!!

Chocolat

Wanna see my feet?!

Dr. Dog Heart It Races

My foot is not broken and I found a place to live

Went to the ER to get x-rays and my foot is officially not broken!  They asked me when I had broken it before, but as far as  I know I never have.  Maybe it healed quickly or something?  It had been a month since my incident.  lol.  Je sais pas.  When I broke my arm it healed in 2 weeks..whatever the case is, I'm relieved.  In other news, I found a place!  It is off line 9, 2nd to last stop!  The weird part is I'm living with this lady and her son.  The students floor is above theirs (there are 2 other students living there, one from Romania and the other from Moldova) and we share the big kitchen.  It's cool, cheap.  440/m and a nice room with a slanted ceiling and a skylight!  HOWEVER, the bathroom is awful!  I think the pipes or the walls or something is full of mold.....ew.  And the shower head sounds like a hornets nest.  Luckily, I don't usually spend too much time in the bathroom so I guess that's ok.  Here is the view from my skylight, and I'll put pictures up of the room next time I'm home.  Also, France is on strike again before I've even started teaching.  Vive la France!

Pinic

By chance, we managed to find a little gazebo to shelter us from the rain that started as we were about to eat our sandwiches.  We were soon joined by a group of french kiddies and their caretakers.

Watching kids play is one of the most entertaining things to do.  They just run around and fall down, making games out of the fallen leaves or the dirt they find there.  Acid heads.  Each white french kid was accompanied by their very own African caretaker.  Totally bizarre, but I guess it's like that in the states too.  Everyone looked like they were having fun anyways.  The gazebo seemed to be the place to be.  When the toblerone came out, the kids came over with their best pouty faces.  Couldn't give them any without their parents consent though!  Lovely day.  I hope the kids I teach will be as cute as these ones.

The rooftops of Paris

Coolest place I've been.  Imagine one of Danny's friends shimmying up a drain pipe to hop the fence of his former high school.  A second later, he opens the gate for us grinning.  Woo!  We're in!  Next, it's up the elevator and through some questionable fences onto the roof.  The 'fence' was made to make it difficult to make it through without falling to your death, but possible enough to encourage people to try.  However, luckily we all managed and once up there you realize what a fantastic choice you made to not turn back.  The view up there is incredible!  I felt like I was in Mary Poppins.  We could see everything:  Sacré Coeur, la Tour Eiffel.  C'etait trop cool.  We just sat up there for awhile, the 4 frenchies, me and Danny, speaking french and smoking cigarettes....Oh, the French.
And to think I almost missed out because I was 'too tired'.

Cleary the photo doesn't do it justice, but I thought I'd try.

Coolio

People are so funny

http://www.blogs.uni-osnabrueck.de/dondelillo/files/2007/11/parr.JPG

Jazz and BBWs

Tranny fell and hurt her ankle.  Well no, more like...tranny ate shit!  but she is almost better.  It's been pretty boring, I haven't been out in 2 days and didn't even have internet.  My time consisted of a lot of Harry Potter, spaghetti and long wine discussions with Danny about why I hate being dependent and what that means.  Haha I felt so useless!  Weakling.  It reminded me of how much I hate not being able to move around...hey can you get me a glass of water?  Fuck, sorry.  Danny is a good sport though.  He doesn't understand my embarrassment.  My main worries were I wasn't sure how long it would last, but I am almost back to normal :)
There wasn't much I could have done anyways, so I guess it was a good time to be incapacitated.  Danny and I were both out of money.  Completely.  He managed to find 2.65 in his jeans pocket which got us some spaghetti and a baguette, so luckily we didn't starve haha.  Banks here are closed on Mondays...shocking........all I have to say about that.  I haven't received my bank card in the mail yet, and Dannys account is empty.  Hah!  So that was fun...more funny than fun.  Hunger can be funny when there is an end to it I guess.
But Today is Tuesday!  The banks are open and I will venture out. The time for change has come!  I wish I had a video of my fall, it was pretty epically ridiculous of course. 
The view from the room these past couple days has been nice though:

The photo doesn't really do it justice, but that's Danny's little garden.  Actually, it's the garden of the people upstairs and we have no access to it!  But it's nice to look at it, and hopefully they find us nice to look at too.  lolz
This is one of the first pictures taken by my new ipod touch, w0000t!!  Kristen was able to bring it over from the states for me.  Success!  It's so crazy to have a camera and an ipod again.  It has been so long, I'm not used to it.  What a mission to get it though, thank you mother for not giving up!  From it being sold out in all of southern California till after I left the states, to shipping it to Kristen in NY, to having to use the McDonalds wifi to uninstall and reinstall iTunes so it would be compatible...which took so long I had to come back to recharge my computer because MacDo doesn't have electricity...just plugs that make you think it has electricity.  Haha, as with everything else since I've arrived here, it took forever to get it and then to get it working, but it was worth it!  Je suis contente.
The most awesome thing is that somehow when I uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes, all of my music from highschool and up until I got this computer 2 years ago showed up in my folder.  It's awesome.  I've been having a great time listening to Luda, especially Growing Pains :)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Il3ZAsVb8

So now I have a camera and can take silly photos like this and post them on here (or Danny can).  Life is looking up in Paris.
And I think I didn't mention, I have a phone now!  How electronic these past two posts have been!

Kristentranny comes to visit!!

First stop:

The electroparadefestival in the streets.  It was siickkk!  Sicky gnar bro!

So much fun!  Frenchies in da streeetz.  I love everything about festivals.  Everyone is there to jam, people are dancing, people are happy and people are free.  It's an all-around good time.  The only difference between European festivals and American ones is that very few people dress up at the Euro ones, and I feel like almost everyone is dressed up in America.  I miss dressing up, but I like both.  Looking forward to more of this.

Next stop: clubs

 Danny went all paparazzi on us apparently.

This night did not go as planned!  But it was still mad fun even if we didn't get to dance. lolllz haha leave it to the trannies, I guess we'll save dancing for Nice.  So good to be reunited in la France!  Who what have guessed we'd be the ones to come back?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35rPec8NigA

Well, at least I'm not pregnant.

Religion:

It has given people hope in a world torn apart by religion. - Jon Stewart

Sign me Up

I Love zee Smell of zee Armpeetz!

Or was it I love the odor of the armpits?  Either way, best frenchie quote I've heard thus far.  Last night Danny and I were hanging out with his bassist friend, Aureliene, when the subject switched from music to women.  Smell is a big deal for them when it comes to attraction, as it is for most people I guess...I've just never heard anyone say it quite like that :)  Maybe the smelly french stereotype is more correct than I once thought.  To be fair, he was talking about pleasant smells....under the arm pleasant smells.  Zee phairomeenz!  haha tu vois?

I'm still getting owned by the backwards french 'system' daily.  I have however, managed to get a bank account!  Grâce à Danny's aunt Katherine (Cah°tair°een) who supplied the necessary housing paperwork I needed to get an account.  A few more hoops to jump through and then I'll be allowed to get a phone plan.  Then I'll be set..if I find a place to live.  America is definitely easier in that, if you are willing to pay money to get something, like a phone for example, you they will glady take your money for it.  And if you have money to put in a bank account, you can open one and put it in!  Damnit!

Anyways, back to the world of the french Harry Potter for me.  I'm so happy I have a semi-valid excuse to be reading HP again.  It's helping my french!

The World Cup just ended.  Bulgarie: 150 Irlande: 160 :)

Poison

Did anyone in America hear?  Tens of thousands surround Merkel's office:



Coolest part of this Berlin trip was this anti-nuclear engergy protest.  So many people!  More pictures to come, I haven't developed my disposable yet..I just found these online.
These germans are protesting the extension, by the lovely Angela Merkel, of the use of nuclear energy in Germany.  Around 7 years ago the government decided to put a moratorium on the use of nuclear energy.  It was to be stopped completely this year however, Merkel's government has decided to extend it.  The people are pissed!  And actually manage to participate in a huge, successful protest.  I'm impressed; let's hope the government is too.  The nuclear energy lobbys spend tens of millions on advertisements and campaigns insisting that this energy is safe and necessary to 'bridge the gap' until they switch over completely to sustainable energies.  However, it isn't.  If they stopped using it today there would be no increase in the price of energy.  It is just in the companies interest to continue its use.  And where does all the nuclear waste go?  The shores of poorer nations.  woo!   They asked all participants to bring tin cans wrapped in yellow paper and they made a Huge pile of it outside one of their government buildings.  Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of that for the moment.
A lot of the signs the protesters held conveyed the message 'They say nuclear energy is better than fossil fuels, but why switch from one poison to the next when there is an abundant supply of sun, wind and water to be invested in?'

Sehr cool Berliners.  We don't want another Chernobyl -
http://www.planetthoughts.org/userfiles/image/2009/Apr/Chernobyl-child.jpg
I'm just going to post the link because this picture is pretty disturbing.

Berlin

My favorite city.  Happy to be back, but I wish I could speak German!  I would move here in an instant.  So alive, so interesting, so cheap! and so full of history.  Progressive.  And none of the snootiness one might encounter in Paris.  I can wear whatever I want.  I'll be a little down on Paris until I'm finally settled.  Their system is so impossible!  You can't open a bank account without paying rent somewhere, yet you can't pay rent anywhere without a bank account.  C fou!  And frustrating.  I'll figure something out though, I'm more annoyed than worried.  This is a useless post but, if shit ever hits the fan, I'm moving to Berlin.

This is what I've come up with:

Berlin is to acid! as Paris is to heroin.


Both are cool, but Berlin obviously wins.

TA MERE

Un peu de respect, hein? J'aurais pu être ton père si j'avais couru plus vite que la ragonda!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9thjgHGS38k

Jetlag

4am.  <<My piss smells like oatmeal and my toilet is plugged in>> - Wise words by the late DK this early morning.  He's back asleep now.  420.  Moi, j'ai le sens d'etre dans Lost in Translation.

I'm so wide awake!  I kinda like it.  Danny and I were supposed to go to a birthday party tonight and somehow managed to pass out right before we left around 1030.  Alors, je me suis reveille maintenant.  C'est fou ça.  Mais en plus, maintenant on attend le metro qui commençerait à 6h du matin pour se recontrer avec les amis qui continuent de faire la fête toujours.  J'aime ça :)  Ce n'est pas possible à Orange County de fait comme ça.

Alors, je commence ce blog.  Je suis arrivée à Paris!  With much less enthusiasm than I had originally expected.  It seems to be a general trend of mine to attach myself competely to things precisely at the wrong moment.  My last two weeks in Orange County were so perfect.  A Perfect balance of all the things I love - Un équilibre parfait entre tous les choses que j'aime.  Mais onto the next great adventure eh.  It's weird to feel that I'm leaving people behind.  Parce que, pourquoi?  Est-ce que je n'etais pas satisfaite?  Non, ce n'est pas ça.  Parcontre, il me semble que dans ma vie, j'ai le sens de satisfaction plus que c'est normal.  J'ai une bonne famille que j'aime, les meilleures amis que j'adore et les belles villes de habiter mais je veux toujours voyager à l'étranger.  C'est bizarre.  Mais je pense qu'il est ecrit dans les étoiles...

Sagittarians have a positive outlook on life, are full of enterprise, energy, versatility, adventurousness and eagerness to extend experience beyond the physically familiar. They enjoy travelling and exploration, the more so because their minds are constantly open to new dimensions of thought. They are basically ambitious and optimistic, and continue to be so even when their hopes are dashed. Their strongly idealistic natures can also suffer many disappointments without being affected.  They are usually on the side of the underdog in society they will fight for any cause they believe to be just, and are prepared to be rebellious. They balance loyalty with independence. I think that about sums it up.  Anyways, c'est l'heure!...on va faire la fête à cette heure folle.