dat Ash

Just found out that the delicious goat cheese I was eating is coated in ash...et fait exprès (on purpose) !    Somehow, it's delicious.  Vive la France.

Voilà:

le Chèvre Cendré

Wakeboarding

I have been quite the productive human these past few weeks in Aus.  I've been exercising, making money, mailing letters, reading books, using an iphone :p
It feels good to be a functioning, contributing member of society...or maybe just to have a clear head.
ANYWAYS, this past weekend I went wakeboarding and it was awesome!!  Also tubing, which is crazy.  I hope to do a lot more of it this summer (why yes it will be summer here soon :).  I am sore all over and it feels great.  I managed to get up for all of 1.5second my first try, but by the 4th try I managed to get a real ride in.  Suhweeet!  To get the full experience you need to listen to the song posted above, which we were playing on the boat.  So good on a boat.

The boat

Me (holy shit my hair) and Katrina

Ready?

Woooo!

Wooo!!!

Woooo!!!!

And splash

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.

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.

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!

Well, at least I'm not pregnant.

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 :)