Post- le quatorzième: It's heeeeeeeeeeeeere

The rail pass arrived yesterday morning. I immediately went to the train station to validate it and get my reservation. The poor lady who works at Gare Conflans Sainte Honorine is witnessing my "progress" with learning French. I do hope it has been progress in this past month! Luckily she has been very patient and helpful. I depart on the overnight train tomorrow evening. I'm going to Italy! The last I was in Rome (summer 2005) I was too jetlagged and too anorexic to appreciate anything. So I am tremendously looking forward to this trip! Hopefully we'll also have the opportunity for a few little excursions out of Rome. More later!

Post- le treizième: ADDENDUM- "we deliver for you?"

After waiting all day (okay, only until 15h00ish, but do admire the hyperbole) the UPS truck arrived. So, I ran out barefoot. "Il y a un colis? Un colis? Je m'appelle Amanda Zane! J'habite ici...avec cette famille." Um.


After a conversation entirely en français with the UPS driver, I learned that he tried to deliver twice yesterday but nobody was home and when he looked at the mailbox name he did not see my name so he thought it was a mistake and today he did not have the package, as he was only here to deliver something to some neighbors.


I explained-- probably sounding like a three year old with my limited French, or maybe accidentally speaking in Spanish, or maybe even making up words-- that yes the door bell does actually work. But nobody was here. And I was probably at the unversity. All day long. And yes I do live here. And I am studying here. And living with this family. And I am waiting for my package. A delivery of a train ticket.


At this point he asks me if this package I'm waiting for is urgent. Right. That must be part and parcel to why I've been waiting all day for you to show up, monsieur! He explains that the package is back at the cental location place thingo and he gives me a number to call.


Thus, I come in and after 10 more minutes of French on the phone (heavens I'm glad I remember my letters and numbers so I was able to repeat the tracking code twenty-five-million times!), I resolve the confusion and hopefully they should get the package to me tomorrow morning before I go to classes.


I don't know whether to be happy that I was able to deal with this all in French, or to be frustrated. So, I'm trying to approach it with some humor, and hopefully they will deliver tomorrow-- with no further issues-- before I leave for class! Simultaneously exhilarated and exhausted from all this, I then went for a brief run down along the Seine. Several times as I passed by, I overheard people uttering words like "sportive." *giggles* C'est tout!

Post- le treizième: waiting games

1.

Dear Eurail (http://www.eurail.com/), where is my train pass? Je veux partir à Rome! Maintenant! Well, okay...maybe Monday. UPS France is having issues delivering this pass. I just want Corporate Governance Class tomorrow afternoon, French Class tomorrow evening, the Geomoov (http://geomoov.idoo.com/index.html) boat trip on the Seine Saturday night, and ITALY early next week! So much for 2 day international delivery on the train pass! Why with two failed delivery attempts yesterday (merci, online tracking) did they not leave a card to tell me how to claim my colis?

Every truck excites undue attention today-- ooooh, a bakery truck! a garbage truck! utilities trucks with ladders! But where are you package delivery truck? S'il vous plaît! Would flying (ironically the best rates were Lufthansa via Frankfurt)have been better?! Remind me, why do I cave to peer pressure? Ethan?

2.

While I'm whining in such an unbecoming fashion, let me add, I want l'hiver-- winter-- to be over. It is not that it is particularly cold. It isn't. It has only snowed twice since I arrived, and both were mere dustings. It is just that I appear to be the only person in this country, maybe on this entire continent, with un manteau rouge-- a red coat. I eagerly await the day I can go out without awkwardly drifting through of the sea of mud-colored coats.

3.

I successfully baked a batch of apricot-almond rugelach! Yippy skippy! On that sweet note, let me return to awaiting the arrival of this delivery. I feel somewhat trapped. I would like to run now that my knee is much improved from my fall last week at Gare Saint-Lazare, but I'm afraid I will miss any attempted delivery if I even go a couple of miles.... And so I go....

Post- the twelfth: In which she finds Philadelphia

Chers amis! J'ai trouvé Philadelphia! Yes, I found Philadelphia...the cheese, not the city of brotherly love. Well, cream cheese is pretty lovely, too! I am now convinced that for the lovely price of 4.60 euro for a mere 200 grams-- thank you Kraft distrubtors in Belgium-- that ANYTHING can be found at Galleries Lafayette (http://www.galerieslafayette.com/).


Normally, I have little interest in cream cheese, but it is a central ingredient, which I have long taken for granted, in rugelach (yummy New York/Jewish baked pastries)-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugelach. This is one of the specialties I love to bake, and seeing as it is impossible to find rugelach in Paris, I have indeed decided to bake.


I did search for these delicious treats in the several open Jewish bakeries in the Marais this past Saturday, when I got together with my friend Mira from Brandeis (http://www.brandeis.edu/-- I feel like they should be forgiving some of my undergrad loans when I do such advertising for them). She does a better job writing about the nice little restaurant we visited, so check out her blog, especially the February 15 post, here-- http://ausoleillevant.blogspot.com/. We also found a yummy little tart with quetsche (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetsche) but alas, no rugelach!


Naturally it was Shabbat so many Jewish bakeries were not open, but even so, I don't think I can find rugelach in a pâtisserie here. Cream cheese is not exactly abundant here, either, despite the myriad other cheeses. So, I was quite thrilled to find Philadelphia on the way back from my Antitrust Course this morning. A course that this morning, interestingly, was all about franchising in France!


Now, there is a rugelach dough chilling in the fridge downstairs. Tomorrow I'll probably bake them up and pray that the joys of metric conversions and fahrenheit-centigrade changes don't destroy my culinary endeavors. Sweet. Hopefully literally.


Well, next week is vacation here, and I will head to Rome to meet up with Ethan, my friend from back in Portland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Maine). Thus, my other exciting purchase this morning was a little tourbook for Rome and a French-Italian phrasebook. Lol. For 2 euro I treated myself...because you know...in case my limited English, Spanish, and extremely limited French are insufficient.... On that note, it looks like the battery life of my laptop is going to be insufficient for anything more. Ciaomiao. ;-)


-A


p.s.-- Any suggestions on what one ought to do with approximately 90 remaining grams of cream cheese?

Post- the eleventh: in which she experiences "luck" on vendredi le 13...

I arrived in Cergy for my 13h30 cours to learn the prof was not there. So what else is new?! So, I had a good amount of time before I'd told my new friend Linda, from Germany, that I would meet her to go to an athletics class at the gym. When we finally met up for the 16h30 class we learned that it was also cancelled! Thus, we simply used the velo (bicycling).


After, I went to my 18h30-20h30 French Class...which I'm not sure why I even attend. It is a major pain-- on Wednesdays it finishes at 8 PM and on Fridays at 8:30 PM! Then, the soonest train is about 9:10 PM, and when I get to my connecting station I usually have to walk 20 minutes to get home, unless I want to wait 45 minutes for the connecting train. I get home and eat dinner about 10 PM and collapse from exhaustion.


The fact that I attend this infernal French class is a testament to my desire to learn this language. Especially because UMaine Law has informed me that I am unlikely to get credit for this class. Does anybody know if I can like argue this with the curriculum committee, or some such...? This French course is compulsory here-- the Université de Cergy REQUIRES that I take it.... So my Icelandic (is that the proper adjective in English?) friend Kris and I endure the absurd schedule and take the train home together, all the way merrily complaining. YES!

On a...sweeter...note, I was able to use my abundant free time to visit the Poste and mail some chocolat to my oldest childhood friend Ruthie, who is presently in Malaysia as a Fulbright Scholar. Whenever I start lamenting the strikes and the myriad of administrative issues here, I think of Ruthie and it makes me realize nothing is problematic here! Nothing. I don't know what those last sentences mean. It seemed like something to type, though. So there it is. And there we are. And there is the end of this post. And soon to be the end of this day.

-A

Post- the tenth: In which she visits Noyant and commences courses and purchases a mobile (or Cats&cows&sheep&roosters, oh my!)

I have been delinquent in posting. That must mean I have been busy! Last weekend I visited Doris in frigid Noyant, south of here. Why did I doubt her when she insisted that Noyant is the middle of nowhere? Note to readers: do not doubt Doris. See pictures below! It was wonderful to spend time with my old college friend, meet her mom, and their kitten Seurat. We also visited Noyant's Buddhist Pagoda, among the few things to do in Noyant. So, mostly, we stayed in and baked. Yum. Then I came home to Conflans. I like Conflans very much, especially downtown by the water; it has character, but is small enough to not be overwhelming. I also came home to classes! Yay! Wednesday was a full day: 9-12 Company Law, 2-4 French Tutoring, 6-8 French Class. I made friends from Holland and Iceland. We are all in the same level of French as well as the same law programme. There are so many people from a so many places, each with their intriguing stories!

Between classes I also managed to purchase a cell phone/mobile/portable/call it whatever you want it connects me to the world (in perhaps all the worst ways). It was cheap. So, if you have some absurd desire to hear my voice, message me/e-mail me/what have you and I'll give you the number. No guarantees if it will actually function, but thus far I have received several calls and made a couple. My brief call from mom in the U.S. was really fantastic-- especially to hear Misty T. Cat meowing into the phone at me. Mom also claims she (the cat, not mom, herself) was "head-butting" the phone when she heard my voice! This, as well as licking people, is Misty's way of getting possessive and showing some love. Génial!

Now, today, Thursday, I have just returned home from a very productive day of: (1) locating the law firm I need to go to for a class in Paris next week, (2)exchanging some travellers cheques and learning that the reason the exchange rate was better to purchase them initially was because I now get assessed a pesky 2% fee to redeem them for paper euros, and (3) my time with Adrien-- the French computer student with whom I'm doing a little language exchange thingo. It was really fun. We went to the bowling alley in Cergy. I am crummy at bowling. C'est dommage! The only annoyance, really, was me having to catch the infernal train to make it back to Conflans before I'd have to walk! I am beginning to feel like I live my life dictated by train schedules....

Well, this appears to be sufficiently lengthy.... As my uncle says...it is clear I am going to become a lawyer because I write so much! Au revoir!

-A

Post- the ninth: In which she is mistaken for British...

This morning I was headed to the train to go to Cergy for the informational meeting for French law students who want to come study in the U.S., Great Britain, or in Australia. I was not sure I would have anything complimentary to say about American legal education, but since I was invited to this meeting to answer questions or what have you, I figured I would go. At the least, it would be an opportunity to practice some French and to meet some people, right?


So, I walk out the door all sunny and happy-happy because I had just given S (the mother in the family with whom I am staying, see prior posts) her birthday gift. Her birthday is tomorrow, but I leave at the rump crack of dawn to go visit my friend Doris south of here, not to mention that I'm lousy at keeping surprises and was ready to crack just keeping it.


I bought S a casse-noix-- a nutcracker-- not of the Tchaikovsky ballet type, but of the actual functional type, because the device she was previously using (lime squeezer? garlic presser? clearly I am not familar with kitchen gadgets?) was not really functional. Well, at least not without sending nut shells into the dog/cat's water! So, I did a little research to find out what nutcrackers even looks like (think larger version of those crackers for taking apart lobsters). It is also interesting to note, as a tangent, that one can purchase a Hillary Clinton shaped nutcracker on amazon.com. I will refrain from further tangents here.


So there I was, all sunny and happy-happy walking out the door. I closed the gate behind me and crossed through the parking lot in front of the Tabac to get to the train station across the street. But there was this guy with his car door open. So, awkwardly I start to squeeze past, and he apologizes in French, and I try saying that it was fine, in French. Then he starts talking quickly in French, so I have to explain to him, in French, that I only speak very little French.


So then he asks me, in French, if I'm from England. And this is particularly strange to me because a couple years ago when I was in Madrid I was incessantly being mistaken for British. Back then, I took it as something of a compliment because anti-Americanism was much greater than it is presently. Now I don't know, though. So, I explain to him, no, "je suis...de...les Etats Unis..."


At this point I am about to miss my train, and they don't come nearly frequently enough between here (Conflans Ste. Honorine) and Conflan Fin d'Oise, where I need to connect to the RER out to Cergy Prefecture. So, I start to walk away, and he says in perfect English, "I love you." And I'm like trying to not crack up (nuts-- right?) laughing. So I say "merci." And continue to walk to the train, and then he shouts really loud, "I love you."


It is good to be loved. *laughs* :-)


-A

Post- the eighth: UE 3

So yesterday-- hier-- a word I adore for its similarity to Spanish-- was the day of the oral French placement exam. Oral. Um, "why don't we just extract some teeth?" was probably the remark I made to many of you prior to this test.


Interestingly, though, it was fairly painless. I arrived early and chatted in the hallway with a few girls from Lithuania who seemed amazed that an American actually knew where Lithuania was. Unfortunately, when they pressed further for where precisely my grandmother's family came from I could not deliver. Please ask me about the Romanian side of my family. I can actually mention a town name there.



Then, I got called into salle 39 for my 15 minutes of teeth pulling. The teacher had on way too much mascara for 10h, but was otherwise a very pleasant woman, and we discussed many bizarre stilted scenerios entirely in French-- no I am not an au pair-- and then she placed me into UE 3. There are 6 levels. UE 1 is for like absolute beginners. UE 6 is like for extremely advanced folks. So I am somewhat middling.


I was mostly just amazed that I was not placed in remedial French for 2-year-olds, which frankly would have made scheduling my law courses much easier. As it stands I now have to arrange some things. Thankfully the law department here is very helpful about things like that.



I think the French teacher lady was mostly just amazed that I've only studied French formally for like one class that lasted for something like 8 weeks last summer. lol. That does not feel nearly sufficient enough, but I do marvel at how much I can follow. I tried to explain to her that I think it is easier for me because I speak Spanish. I'm sure I entirely butchered trying to communicate that idea rapidly in French.


So, after the test I went on a silly search in several different FNACs (kinda like Borders or Barnes & Nobles, for those in the U.S.-- think books, electronics, etc.) for the text for the course. Unsuccessful, I finally came home and became well acquainted with amazon.fr to purchase my livre and accompanying cahier d'exercices.


Afterwards, I went back to Cergy for a Geomoov meeting (international student group thingo) and met oodles of people. Then, I had exciting adventures getting back home to Conflans because I am notoriously crummy at timing trains. Thus, I walked a couple of miles from one station home, because like hell was I going to stand there and wait 45 minutes for the next train when I could do the walk in like 20....


Tenacious as always, and impatient and somewhat disappointed at having to wait for the book delivery, too, I woke up this morning and continued my mad quest. Finally, FNAC Montparnasse worked out (third FNAC is the charm!?) and I came home just now to cancel my amazon.fr order. Yay! Impatience is a virtue.


I'm excited and have started looking through the livre and cahier. These both ought to occupy me some this weekend on my train ride to visit Doris in Noyant. Next week law courses start, too, so there is much excitement coming! Particularly, my Antitrust course, which is in Paris at a law firm-- http://www.vatier-associes.com/. Also, this evening I meet with Adrien (the 21-year-old computer/engineering student who I help with English and who helps me with French). Fun. Fun.


And even more, the news from the mother(land) is that my former nuisance of a landlord finally returned money he owed to me-- $200 USD. I feel almost like I need to write something like: -- "AMANDA ZANE, YOU HAVE JUST RECEIVED $200 USD, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW?" -- "...I'M NOT GOING TO WILLIAMBURG, I'M GOING TO (EURO)DISNEYLAND!" Well, okay, not planning on that for anytime soon, but perhaps...lol.


I am just pleased that my former landlord finally came around, especially given that I spent a lot of last summer at work writing things related to landlord/tenant issues, so it was only too ironic that he would turn into such a schmuck right when I moved out of the apartment!


Nonetheless, that is all resolved now. My mad French book quest is resolved. And my schedule seems to be resolving itself. So there we are. And there is the end of this post.



-A

Post- the seventh: la neige (the snow)

Salut! Il neige! It is snowing! Actually, it seems to have perhaps let up, but for awhile thick, fluffy flakes were falling. Take my word for that. I'm probably something of an expert on the topic, having grown up in Maine. Truthfully, though, je déteste la neige...mais ce matin j'ai marché et j'ai pris des photos, parce que j'aime prendre des photos. See:







For the remainder of today I think I will stay in though, nice and warm, and conjugate some verbs, or something like that. First person to comment on what I dork I am...well...that person probably has a valid point. *giggles*





Staying in will be okay, though. I spent a lot of the weekend playing "tourist" and meandering about all over. Sacre Coeur was particularly lovely. For additional pictures, I am simply going to implore y'all to sign onto Facebook. I love just walking and walking and discovering something new in Paris. It makes me feel very alive, very real, very human. It is the type of beautiful place where I could just wander and wander and I suspect even after years would still always marvel at something different.


Somewhere in all of this wandering, though, people seem to think I look like the type of person who knows where I am going. Nothing could be further from the truth. Various folks in various languages keep asking me for directions. They would probably have better luck finding "insert-desired-location-here" if I politely, gently, told them to get lost. I don't mean this in any nasty way, but I am incredibly directionally challenged, and even if I know where I am going, I can rarely coherently instruct anybody in any language how to get there! This was a particular problem back when I used to work as an EMT and a good deal of my job was driving ambulances in emergencies!


Speaking of challenges, the next challenge, or perhaps I prefer to think of it as an adventure, will be classes starting up this week. Tomorrow I will go to the school and meet some other folks in the L.L.M. program in which I'll take my courses. They should be nice and stressed out because tomorrow they have some of their first semester exams. I will also submit more paperwork to the school to hopefully get an identification card at some point prior to leaving. I have been told the French tend to collect papers. This does not surprise me after my experience with the French Consulate in Boston. Wednesday I will have my French placement exam, and then French classes will start. Next week law classes commence. Yay! I am eagerly looking forward to all of it, but the unknowns, the newness of it all, makes me simultaneously nervous.


I shall keep you posted. This seems sufficiently lengthy now. As you can likely tell, brevity is not quite my thing. Au revoir!



-A