"reading words is automatic and difficult to inhibit"

you know i'm not sure if that is the exact quote anymore cuz i read it a few hours ago, but it makes me want to call them up and see how exactly one WOULD inhibit someone from reading a word. cuz think about it...you never just SEE a word or just look at it. the meaning strikes you from the very first even if after that you admire the font or whatever. so i was reading Acts of Reading today...

lol

Gosh it feels so good to be studying!!! I haven't been in the zone for a really long time...like...HAHA SINCE SCHOOL STARTED. I study better when it's vacation :D Today the lady on NHK said "goran kudasai" so I did even tho it was baseball and I didn't really want to. She was just being SO polite that I HAD to watch it heh. They also had a story about the train accident. I guess 76 people are dead now. That is awful! I was proud of myself for understanding the kanji tho!! I'll have to look up the word later....Boy tho that book I'm reading is so interesting tho. It talks about all sorts of theories and experiments and things and then applies it to what the pedagogy should be. That is what I like!! It's so good when people try to figure out better ways to teach! If you teach me more efficiently I will be smarter!! XD

These two days I am making up for my missing of so many movies I want to see by seeing THREE. O_o I realize I can't make a habit of it but I really want to see them before they leave and none of these are American!!! :D I decided that I won't see anymore American or English movies (the obvious exception being STAR WARS cuz I will HAVE to see that ;D and maybe I "heart" huckabees cuz I missed it in the states...) you know if you go in the morning it's sometimes less than 5 euros :D which is ridiculous considering the student discount is usually 6.50 or higher :D

Last night I saw Léo...etc...I can't remember exactly the rest of the title and I dunno what they called it in English. The one with the white lion. ANIME :D and the VO which is so nice. Always the subs people!!! They roxxor!!! XD It was pretty good, but sort of alarming. Two little lions are born in the beginning the entire rest of the movie is spent killing EVERYONE off. I mean, seriously, just about. Lots of the death scenes were really bad too...at least the first few. Like you can't believe they're shooting the animal in the first place and you expect it to be sad but then it gets this crazy look on it's face and pops of the ground and falls really stupidly and you're like...but i thought that he was evil why is the shooting so fake? Luckily when certain other more important people die it is not sooooo lame. Altho...it was still odd lol

THIS MORNING I woke up early (which sadly yes 8 has become early but we're going to work on that...because now I study so the morning can be occupied like that) and went out to Bercy Village to see The Taste of Tea which is a REALLY GOOD Japanese movie. Really probably the best movie I've seen since Neverland. Very quirky tho. A very good way to spend the morning. It's just sort of a chunk of this family's existence I guess. Not really sure how to describe it. There is a awkward boy who likes Go and a little girl with a giant double of her who watches her when she is bored, a tendancy she seems to have inherited somehow from her uncle who is a sound mixer. The mom is a animator. There's a crazy rich mangaka and the dad is a hypnotist. The grandpa is really really strange lol but an animator as well. I would love to see it again. I'm sure I missed things. It was so awesome!! If it's playing where you are go forth and watch!!!! Or rent as I suppose the case may be...it's from last year...

Oh I was going to mention that I do think that Amy was indeed mistaken to the dismay of us all about the Hitchhiker's movie. It is just not coming out here. I checked yahoo cinéma and they don't recognize the french or the english title. I haven't seen any trailers for it here either or posters. There should be posters by now!! lol

Speaking of trailers...I saw the Ep III trailer at Léo yesterday!! How exciting! It looks awesome! I hope it will be *crosses fingers* For those of you who didn't know I was slightly disappointed with Ep II...I think that we're going to rent I and II before we go see III...according to Amy this is the plan. It opens a week after the Rufus concert which means a week after vacation is over!!

Yeah time is gonna fly. May will be half over by then!!! Star Wars is only a little over a week before the anime convention and I'm sure there will be stuff at the MCJP before then. And then if it's anime convention time it means my dad will be visiting and I will be switching apartments and wow it's all going to be OVER soon o_O lol

Just glad I'm studying again!!! :D

In an hour and a half I'm going to see (shockingly) the first French movie I'll have seen in theaters since I've been here. It's going to be really hard...reading French subs is one thing but trying to catch the words that just FLY out of these people's mouths is quite another!!! x_x I'll try hard. I heard this movie is great tho. I will let you know later...probably tomorrow!! XD

In other news it is RAINING. Temp is perfect. In fact earlier it wasn't raining and that was super glorious but now it is cloudy and wet...

So it goes I guess...

OH complaint!!! I bought some pocket pitas (they go really well with eggs or tuna) but holy cow they are NOT meant to be stuffing things in cuz they just fall apart!!! Unhappy! That was the whole point! Easy tasty sandwichs!! Point obliterated!!! *cry* lol

At the MCJP today I decided that my next reading assignment will be Keigo in Modern Japan. Hopefully this will be helpful or enlightening because that is what I've been studying!!! Honorifics! Tomorrow I have to copy some recipes that I think I can try because Thursday I have decided...is the day of SUKIYAKI :D ooh but i also have to go out to that evil library in the middle of nowhere and return those obnoxious books that are probably now overdue as well V_V grrrr

but wait!!! *flail* i need to end on a happy note!!!! X_O uhm uhm uhm *flail* I DUNNO!!! UHM...well i'm going to see the movie and then hopefully i will buy a phonecard cuz i forgot on the way here...maybe i will try to find one on the way to the movie and i will DEFINITELY get gummies! lol so there is your happy note! yummy gummy o_o

at last the guac

it was SO good. We all ate too many nachos and of course Napoleon was good too cuz how could it not be? TELL ME THAT lol how could it not be?

This morning I read and studied. It looks like I'm going to be doing a quite a bit of that. lol It makes me feel lazy though even though I am accomplishing things. I don't feel active unless I've been out. So I dragged myself here. I think I'm going to see a movie this afternoon.

I also need to buy a phonecard.

You see this isn't terribly interesting is it?

What did I study? Well, pathetically, I am only on Chapter 20 (starting from 19 you see...) so that means "extra-modest expressions" and "humble expressions." In theory this is easy enough, you just remember some verbs that mean the same as some verbs you already know and learn how to modify other things and stuff but I think in PRACTICE it will be horrendous. And honorific speech and things like this are the worst kind of mistakes to make. It's ok to like mess up a WORD but when you may be being really impolite or something just by using the wrong verb form NOT CUZ YOU MEAN IT but because you just aren't used to having ten ways to say the same thing...oh cry.

I'm also working on more kanji. Contrary to most Japanese programs ours decided to give us LESS kanji to work on the further we got...so I feel like this will be a weakness if I get accepted to california and take the placement test. I have a plan though so hopefully I will be able to learn a lot.

It's still depressing to study alone. x_x Not only is there no one to ask questions to but there is no one to talk to or comiserate with when we forget everything. Maybe I spelled that wrong...

I decided that Thursday is going to be the day I go Japaneses grocery shopping and get sukiyaki supplies. :D I hope it turns out ok and isn't too horribly expensive!!! I need to check out some of the other grocery stores. ^_^

hmmm

since it is Monday i can't go to the MCJP. I can't believe it is three o'clock! I have to quit waking up at ten. It makes the day go by alarmingly fast. Although on the other hand it's not like I have a terrible amount of things to get up to. I have put off the swimming pool though. I thought about checking out the one near the lab but it seems silly to do that when there is one somewhere very near the residence. I need to ask Brett about it...her mom is visiting tho v_v

It's weird to think I have only about two months left. My guess is that will seem like a very long time...until like the last week. I'm so used to everything. It will seem weird to go back to the states, but I'm looking forward to American school lol and everybody will be fun, and my PUPPY!!!!!! lol

free lime and garden state

emanuel gave it to me :D now i don't have to go buy one!

last night i did end up going to Garden State and they DID charge us an arm and a leg cuz it was saturday!!! V_V I wish i had the unlimited pass like some of my friends but you have to have a bank account and that seems like a lot of hoops to jump through. I don't want to putz with it. Plus I think if i had it i would probably just spend ALL my time at the movie theater lol

the movie was good. zack braff annoys me for some reason and the movie wasn't really sitting right in my head the whole time...if that makes sense...which it doesn't really. i mean it was good and the message was good...i think it was kind of constructed...which of course all movies are but it was constructed in such a way to make you think it wasn't? i think it was the idea that the comedy wasn't from jokes as such but from things you would find funny any day at any time and that theoretically you could come across. which in that it was good...that was amusing...i dunno...i guess i can't put my finger on it but something was bugging me the whole time. i did like it though, quirks and all i guess lol. wonderful but not amazing...that's what i decided

i wouldn't mind seeing it again either.

and you know i always forget to check who that guy is. he must be going for a best supporting lol cuz that's always where i find him...the guy who got back the necklace...let's find him...Peter Sarsgaard. Yeah he's groovy :D He's always an interesting character...

What else is going on...oh after the movie we had ice cream. DID I NEED ICECREAM? Decidedly not lol but then Emanuel and I walked all the way home from les halles so i think it'll be ok lol and it was good!! and i also blame it on the movie for inspiring me to live life as it comes to me even if it is ice cream that is coming lol

thus far sunday has been one of those lazy putter about sort of days. i read a couple chapters of my book with surprisingly little use of the dictionary altho it may be that i just wasn't tenacious enough to look EVERYTHING up. Sometimes I look up words I more than half sure on and sometimes not...depends on my mood. Of course if I am less than half sure I look it up...unless I am feeling REALLY lazy and it looks unimportant. i got my thief killed in fire emblem this morning. i'm trying to beat levels without killing people but what i realized is that it wouldn't really have been the end of the world because i really have a lot of people. lol now i only use the strong people tho so it would be a shame to let them die...the afternoon plan is to study some japanese after i get sick of the computer and then whip up the guac to take to amy's for napoleon.

hummmmmmmm

i guess you're supposed to just hang around when you're on break lol ;D

oops

well i just had a blueberry muffin which a) defeats the purpose of packing dinner so i wouldn't have to buy food and b) defeats the purpose of brining movie cash and leaving my card at home...

FEELING SMART XD

not really...

it was a terribly worthwhile muffin tho does that help?

i dunno what the deal is with the babysitting interview...maybe she changed her mind...but she could've told me...i kinda planned my whole day around this...like i SKIPPED THE MCJP because by the time i was going to go i would've not had any time before i had to leave for the thing...

blah blah blah

i'd like to see Garden State...but there are more important movies to be seen...well that is my excuse...really tho i just don't want to go alllllll the way home to get more money...

maybe i could catch up with them later...

or maybe i should just study japanese

i was thinking it's going to be weird not to have classes next week...i will just be here jammin' around doing whatever...i mean i only have two now anyhow...but still...

i don't get this babysitting interview deal...i'm somewhat DISAPPOINTED in the lack of communcations here. i dunno why she didn't answer her phone...i left a message tho...but she still hasn't e-mailed me!!!

you can expect this from strange boys but not from potential employers!!! what the heck!!!

*chiyo flail*

yarg

So the first cool news is that I have an interview for a babysitting job in about an hour. The problem though, is that she was supposed to e-mail me the address and hasn't yet. That may be due to the fact that she called me while I was sandwiched in the metro with about a hundred other people and may not have heard my e-mail address correctly. I detest giving important information like that out over the phone in ANY case, even moreso when it's noisy as all get out...

The other news is that I did indeed find a swimming suit. The first two-piece in my memory so that is interesting...it's adidas and sort of a cheerful red, navy, sky blue thing. Unfortunately now that I have a suit I don't have a pool. It is around somewhere but not where I thought it was and I dunno where else to look...so...lol. I'll have to ask Datif.

Maybe I should call that lady and see...perhaps she misheard me and hasn't actually got my e-mail...

Hum. Anyhow the job is to watch a four year old boy three hours most days a week which sounds nice :D

AND TOMORROW IS GUAC AND NAPOLEON

Well let's see last night I got home and had dinner with Dann which was good. He put about fifteen different spices in some scrambled eggs and I brought salad and hummus. Tonite I have been invited to see Garden State as a sort of good-bye for vacation to Emily and Tara who I haven't seen in eons anyhow...

OH something that made me really irate yesterday was that I travelled all the way out to this library in the middle of a grand nowhere...which I mean...it's Paris so I'm sure that's not really true but still...AND they were CLOSED for like three days for some reason. All I wanted to do was return the books I had borrowed and they DIDN'T HAVE A BOOKDROP apparently we really ARE ten years ahead of France in the states as Datif has suggested to me, but really I think bookdrops have been around much longer than that...

I also hate my hair LOL When it dries inside without the breeze it gets really just...obnoxious...like it dries in one set wave. Grr my hair is so lame.

Tiz all...news on things later if they even occur...

chiiiii *spoilers for I, Robot*

So a fellow handed me coupons for Quick today. That may be an excuse to eat a couple of burgers in the upcoming weeks because they expire the 15th of May... You know though Quick isn't like Macdo. Their burgers are pretty thick lol

So here we go I'm gonna RANT are you READY? Do you have the patience to sit through this one? I'm sure some of you will agree with me!!! In fact I'm sure some of you are less lenient than me on the issue...but here goes: I saw I, Robot last night. Before you start criticizing my lack of resolution or whatever let me say first of all that it wasn't my fault. I was going to see why Brett wasn't in class yesterday and she wasn't at home so I knew she was probably at Clara's house and she was and they were watching the movie. Hence I missed the beginning so I hope that doesn't cloud my judgement. They explained everything. I watched from the part where SPOONER (ism? Like what kind of name is that? I'll save the complaining for later though...) is driving his car (MANUALLY FOR PETE'S SAKE O GOSH WHATEVER WILL THEY DO NEXT) and all the evil red robots jump on him and stuff. lol OK...the rule is always start with the good things before you sink in your poisonous fangs and shred it to pieces... Some of the action was good. I did rather enjoy watching armies of robots run amuck and trash the police station...etc. I also enjoyed the action movie dialogue such as *climax* "You SO have to die!!!" and "You shot at me with your eyes closed?" "Well it worked didn't it?!" (Yeah...she did hit the robot and not him...but still...heh) so yes redeeming qualities were present and I did not regret the experience on the whole. I can't still can't help feeling that if they were going to do Asimov they should've just DONE Asimov. I mean the robots are well and good and the three laws are cool but I miss the characters. I think The Caves of Steel would make a really great movie. I want to see Elijah Bailey!! You know Tom Hanks could've played him but maybe he's getting a bit old now. I don't remember how old Elijah was... Grrr it would've been so good!!! lol I don't like the silly "suggested by" business. You don't need a suggestion when you've got a movie right there!!! And Naked Sun would be really cool too. RAR RAR RAR RABBLE RABBLE

Today got off to a slow start because I woke up kinda late, well I woke up at 10:30 so I got 8 hours of sleep. Blah blah...I'm gonna go make a call on a babysitting job that is probably already taken and then buy a swim suit. Hopefully tonite I will go swimming but I dunno. Depends if it's open I guess...the pool I mean. It's smack next to my house so I might as well check it out. Supposedly it is cheap and o so healthy ne?

swimmingly

Things are ok but I have a bunch of stuff I want to accomplish and I dunno when or where or how. I really need a swimming suit because A) going to the beach B) going to the pool. I need to get in better shape!!! V_V Seems like this endeavor will have to wait for tomorrow tho...cuz I need to CLEAN MY HOUSE tonite and take a shower and do some reading and buy some vegetables.

The play last night was really cool, but very different. Props were thrown everywhere, the stage was a mess. Shoes, rocks, sand, rolls, forks, all sorts of things. They either talked SUPER fast or PAINstakingly slow. It was a bit hard to follow in fact because even the titles went by pretty quickly at times. It was in Japanese and French and actually the male actor was French which I hadn't known before. I guess I have to admit I didn't really understand it...I mean even beyond the language thing.

This last remark makes me think of my remaining lit class. The film/lit class. Cuz our teacher always throws in references to Heidigger is that how you spell his name? And Eisenstein and expects us to know what she's saying. It is really a pain. Always talking about critics and stuff that is way over our heads. And about history and asking us questions and when we have an answer she just keeps talking anyhow and when we don't she acts frustrated. I dunno...it's really annoying. I wish I knew more about lit theory and how to read stuff. You can only see things you are taught to read for...did I already talk about that in here? I think all the time people just expect us to know how to "read" but really we don't, at least I don't.

So I went and checked out the Japanese grocery today because I decided bento sounded good. I ate and enjoyed green beans...I should find out what they do to them...o_o In fact I was going to go to the MCJP to read and look up some recipes but really I don't think I will have time...and then even if I eat up the rest of my food I think it will be so close to vacation that it would be silly to go grocery shopping anyhow. That's kinda frustrating. I'm going to have to specifically concentrate on my vacation and not spend the whole time looking forward to coming back to grocery shop.

SPEAKING of which I found a really kickin' little bio store right by the Chatêlet exit...which I HAVE to go to. I didn't look at the prices for their bread but they have bread and alllll sorts of things. Gotta check it out when I go grocery shopping.

I finally got my passport today too that was the other news. Not like it was difficult or anything. Took like five seconds. Took longer to get into the building than for them to give me my stuff. I don't like the picture though and it's on ALL my ID...the same geeky pic. x_x

I wasn't in a lousy mood but I kinda am now...thinking about how ignorant one is tends to do that. I hate when our teacher doesn't explain anything and then when you ask questions still doesn't explain anything. I guess I'm also not really looking forward to cleaning. I guess technically though I could do that all night so maybe I should go to the MCJP this afternoon...

gay pigeons

did i spell that right? what a funny word. i dunno why but the pigeon it really did just look totally gay...like stereotypically of course. large pastel colored strolling through the flower bed...it was the first thing that came to mind...i dunno i just envisioned a portly fellow in a cream suit with an easter colored tie...and a pocket watch...but definitely also gay...i dunno...it wasn't just me tho...cuz once i brought it up my friends all agreed.

we had lunch today in the jardins de luxembourg. i had a Quick burger because i had to come straight from class. i found out i'm not going to england tho so i can afford it :D

SUNDAY we are having a Napoleon Dynamite party at Amy's with guacamole that I am in charge of and nachos and chicken :D SO EXCITED BECAUSE I LOVE THAT MOVIE AND GUACALMOLE AND THE IDEA OF THAT COMBINATION IS JUST THRILLING XD

haven't heard from california...it is making me nervous lol but i guess they are probably busy...

Tonite is the first Japanese play at the MCJP. I'm gonna dress up I guess altho it's too bad I don't have a better jacket to wear...>_< just my winter coat.

It turns out that while I am in Aix all the lunch club members will be in Nice so we are going to get together for at least a day. Maybe the day they do Monaco.

I just found out that my cousin in the military is going to EYGPY for three weeks in Sept and it sounds like a sweet deal. Lots of free time!!! Practically like a vacation! Sounds like a sweet deal but I wonder what her job is...

What else...so the church bells rang last night which I assume was for the new pope.

MMm and let's see...anything else...

Oh it's very green in the garden and you can smell the flowers even when your nose isn't stuck in them...that's nice. It is a little chilly today tho...I hope it warms up soon!!!

wow i am just random lol i should work on my FLOW lol my rhetoric score is ZERO lol

we're also going to see Hitchhiker's when it comes out next week annnnnd apparently we're having a Star Wars themed lunch club the week of Ep III

my friends are cool ;D

la grève

well lots of my friends don't have classes because their school is closed. I guess the anthropology dept was closed and all the anthropology majors have been making a bit too big of a fuss so they shut down the whole school. kinda nice i guess but also a pain o_o

so dann made quesadillas and they were indeed great...we are DEFINITELY going to do that again sometime. i bought pears yesterday and they taste like candy :D we had those too and some leftover salad...

i read a couple more chapters of Acts of Reading today at the MCJP...that was all i could get myself to accomplish unfortunately...the happy kind of evaporated overnight i guess...i still have time to study tonite tho. right now i'm at datif's. it's cool cuz he is in a good mood :D

is it really legal to hunt stray cats in wisconsin now? everyone i talk to keeps relating this news to me because i am one of maybe two people from wisconsin they know and they need to find out if i know anyone who would actually go shoot a cat...

brett says if it were dogs no one would've said yes so she's mad about it

the coolest thing is that i used up ALL my red change today to buy a baguette for 70 cents :D no more puny little 2s and 1s!!! yes!!! i have a couple fives but those you can use in the vending machines downstairs so i save them up. AND to top it off the lady wasn't even mad at me for unloading my change! she was just like, "that's seventy?" and i was like, "yeah" and then she didn't even count it :D how nice!

and FRENCH BREAD IS THE BEST BREAD IN THE WORLD!!!

*cry*

I'll miss it when I get back.

You know I read a really good quote today...must've been in that book...but I can't remember it. Oh it was something about how people are taught to read in certain ways and if you aren't taught to see certain things you just won't see them. Maybe that is my trouble with literature.

Today I was toying with the idea of doubling in English, because to be a good translator or interpreter you have to have a handle on BOTH cultures. Wow tho reading this book is really making it seem virtually impossible. I barely feel literate in English when I started reading about what it actually takes. I should pay more attn. Altho i did hear the church bells ring at like 12 after six. i guess that must've been the new pope? cuz i did just notice that...

hmm i am not one of those bloggers talented enough to give you news commentary lol

wow datif made me some really tasty tea...

loo loo well i guess that's all...still haven't heard from cali or my advisor...RUBBISH lol

MOAT et. al.

indeed. We have seen the moat. It was empty but nonetheless...it was a moat. I mean...unless there is a word that specifically means "empty moat."

So it was the Château de Vincennes by the Bois de Vincennes. Good stuff. :D They have a zoo there but I'm going to wait until later to go...if I do.

Gotta watch the cash...

CUZ I'm going to AIX!!!

Yes I finally decided. I may still be going to England too. But I'm for sure going to Aix...in fact I'm buying my ticket right after I finish writing this.

Until then I will miss Bryan...cuz he spells it with a y I learned...and Stephanie cuz they roxxor...

I went with them to the château today and also the mosque.

EVERYTHING is under construction. The garden at the mosque was totally ripped up and the towers of the château were coated in scaffolding.

Hmm but else. Oh well the other night we tried to rent Human Nature but instead got this weird French movie where in the year 2070 is Paris is a desert and this guy is there and meets his son who is a grandfather by then and they say they want to exist cuz the deal is his gf wants to have a baby but he doesn't really want kids. I didn't watch the whole thing...this premise was a little too...blah. lol I just wasn't into it lol. Belmondo was in it tho...of course he's kinda old now :D lol but it's funny cuz they had a pic in the movie of like the 60s model when he was slick and cool heh.

So anyhow yesterday Jenny went back and said YO You gave us the wrong flick and then we got the right one for free :D that was nice of them. Human Nature was a pretty cool movie. I would recommend it. The lives of a table manners obsessed scientist, a feral man, and a hairy lady coincide with entertaining results...

Uhmm oh dinner was 2.25 euros!!! I had a quichy thing with meat in it and half an order of fries!! ROCKIN' cuz at this café everything is 1.50 as far as the food goes...harcore!!

What else...oh we went to Quiz Night at "the frog and roastbeef" and i tasted Brian's aquarium which was realllly good. They supposedly have great nachos there so I might go back sometime. The quiz wasn't so great...kinda boring. Wow it was hard and we didn't win. Then the team name was supposed to be something that would embarrass the MC and ours was bad but an english team came up with a clever pun that was also bad so they won. My team is STILL bitter but I think the english team deserved it. (Don't tell them.) For the talent show Bryan sang a song and Jenny and Stephanie made out but a mechanical pig named Moo won...this was amusing, but yet again my team is bitter. We didn't win anything...lol.

That was actually before we watched Human Nature. Then I walked home at three in the morning in the rain cuz I didn't want to share a bed with three other people XD one of whom is coming down with a cold...

Tomorrow my plan is to get some errands done and then have lunch with Dann at noon. He has become skillful at preparing quesadillas which is something I can admire and so we will have salad and pears from my place and quesdillas from his... Then I'm gonna go to the MCJP and read/study/partake of more exciting japanese tv.

OH and so the play is on Wednesday...one of them...and then...OH...ha I just realized I have to be back here on the 29th...heh..for the other play!!! Yay!! And then my trip to aix is going to be the 3th or 4th through the 10th. Of May ne? Oyoy...i dunno i will have to book my ticket...

then i will just have to save a LOT of money :D

because all this vacationing will be expensive!!! (but certainly not as expensive as if it involved hostels o_o)

also bryan doesn't like bars EITHER :D it's nice to know that :D

hmmmm

wow i bet you can tell i'm in a good mood huh????!!!!!

for one thing...i had kinder country today (is that the reason? i don't think so!!! but it was still good!!!!) it's this candy with 5 grain crunchies in it and milk...kinder makes everyone happy!!! anyhow it was an example of a commercial educating the customer cuz i had always wondered what kinder "country" could be and just never picked up the box but then i saw the commercial and the kids were cute BUT THEY also announced to me the 5 grain crunchies which seemed to me to be a tasty thing...and so...i have them and it is!!!

also today a funny thing happened! i found greg in the métro!! well...actually he was holding the door for me as people sometimes do and when i looked up to thank him...it was him!!! i couldn't believe it...very surprising. we're gonna study japanese on friday i guess which sounds like a good plan :D i haven't seen him or heard from him for quite a while o_o

wellll i have to go do some other things and then catch the métro home!!! cuz i am SO not walking from here

!!!

castles and veggies

so i am feeling a little better

nothing has been resolved but i've been having some fun

and eating some veggies

i made a salad (with lettuce and tomato and carrot and i got this crazy mustard dressing that wasn't really that great...or maybe the lettuce wasn't that great...i dunno...it wasn't that great tho i guess HA)

and tonite there was exquisite guacomole ;D

i'm currently appealing for independent studies in Japanese Education and Japanese Folklore to replace the lit class...cuz that i know i could do for sure.

i guess i just won some award back at home for having high gpa...i really don't want to mess that up : /

no news from cali yet

ALSO today there were chateaux...we went to the loire valley and it was super fun and i met some groovy friends of Jenny's from Aix-en-Provence (and california) who we're gonna visit in may at the end of vacation

so tonite i think we're supposedly watching a movie

and wow tho that guac was the best

we always eat well i think

salmon pizza for lunch in this place called amboise where many of the houses are built into rocky hills...really cool looking...wish i had a house like that

i wish i would have gotten a reply from my advisor...that would have been helpful...

wow and i guess i was really really depressed the other day

tomorrow is lunch club and it's at renee's...i guess i am bringing bread...so that's easy :D

and i think i am going to a bar with jenny et. al. for quiz night...it's funny that i will be going to that for the first time with them and not emily and emanuel but i think it will be an interesting time

other than that...looking forward to break...

oh i spoke FRENCH today

imagine that...

(yeah that's kinda how i feel...sad isn't it?)

or not

ha so we're just gonna cook i guess...

so i can just sit here cuz i'm not really needed...

ugh

and so the anime festival IS actually in May

and i am going on the trip on saturday...altho i dunno why...i will probably hate it...just because it will be so touristy...

i dunno

jenny is going...so hopefully it will be cool

i guess i won't be keeping up with go class tho...between this saturday and vacation and other things...it just won't happen

so it goes

anyhow i guess i don't really have anything else to actually say

it's pretty boring to read depressing stuff anyhow...

i dunno what i'm gonna do at school tomorrow cuz i really don't have my OTHER thing done cuz i just don't know what to write about or what he wants or anything really...

this was such a bad idea...

i can't stop thinking how incredibly stupid this is

school wrecks everything

including your capacity to learn and your work ethic

a screw up

well maybe i am going to England after all...

i dunno

i probably shouldn't do anything. i should probably just try not to fail my lit class because otherwise i will for sure

i think i really messed everything up

i don't even remember how

wish i wasn't so depressed

i dunno even where it came from cuz i had new friends even tho it's hard to hang out with new people and i had good food even tho i probably ate too much of it and i had been having a pretty good week...

oh well

so much for that

guess the bottom line is i really don't deserve to go on vacation

cuz unfortunately intending to get work done doesn't get it done

i think intended entirely too much and forgot to actually do it

i was better off as a freaking perfectionist with no life

at least in middle school i got my work done and got straight As with over 100%

now i'm just lazy and stupid

somehow i managed to not even start my paper yet

i've been writing it in lists of things to do ever since i started school

and i tried to research once in a while

everything i do here is so pointless tho

why do i even need a french minor? why am i here?

i think living abroad is an awesome thing but school is horrible

i dunno if it's just this program or what but according to me studying abroad is just stupid...it's too hard to try to integrate yourself into another country's education program that has been training their students since day one how to fit in.

the other thing is that i barely ever speak french. i read in french but i don't speak it except with my french friends which are few if i even see them

ack

more later we're going to go eat i guess...i dunno why...cuz i already did...but we're going...

un oiseau dans la bibliothEque

yes there is supposed to be an accent there but we'll work with what we have for the moment...

so there WAS a bird in the library today, hopping down one of the lit aisles...very odd...

but cute

and so i made some more new friends last night...

how do you spell Macklin? Maclin? Maklen?

he was cool and they wrote an interesting homework assignment

we ate some tasty food and had some wine and chilled

was very nice...

saw some bollywood clips lol

very cool indeed.

i need to talk to anny about the trip cuz i think i will go

which reminds me that i will just get no sleep tonite because i have to go get my passport tomorrow finally AND uhm...crud what was the other thing...

oh! i have to go to MICEFA to sign up to go to the Loire Vally on saturday...it's only thirty five euros...

and i should take advantage...

*cry*

my poor budget needs to be redone...

i think i spend too much on groceries...i have to learn what are the good things to eat...

or something...

i dunno

i feel like everyone i know is cooler than me...and better at living in paris...

news of the day is

my classes are driving me insane

and are hard

AND are giving me a break at the end of NEXT WEEK

RED ALERT

WHO has not even STARTED that stupid evil paper yet? oh yes that would be me...i tried...these books are just too hard to find...tomorrow afternoon tho i will just live at the freaking library and take notes and read

that is the problem right there....they aren't books you can look at part of...they are normal books with chapters so i have no idea what is important and it's not like i have time (nor would i ever have time) to read the whole thing(s)

CRUD BUCKETS

not knowing what's important tho

that is a theme because i feel like that in all my classes

"all"

my whole three classes

this semester is so horribly messed up

i'm just glad that europe is so great and the people are cool and the food is ridiculous

i ate ethiopian today...did i spell that right? it's so sad....

but no the food! it was very intersting...sort of...different little piles of mush that you scoop with what seemed to me like a sour-dough tortilla...spongy...and kinda sour tasting...maybe that was just part of it i dunno...but it wasn't like regular bread...but there were split peas and chicken and hard boiled eggs and then other mushy things like other kinds of meat or something...and some salad....very interesting food

jenny is addicted...

oh oh oh

that is why today was expensive...cuz of ethiopian AND the fact that we went out for bento for lunch...we FOUND the place!!! and had bento...and it was DELICIOUS and i didn't explore the grocery store yet because i decided to leave with my friends and also because i cannot go buying things until i eat up all the food that has been sent to me....that is the rule...i am only allowed to buy perishable items which is soon to be a shame because i will run out of cereal...also i already broke the rule by buying rice cake things...but those are like really cool and remind me of being little

jenny has one of those uber awesome comforters that is super puffy

i like those...

her bed is nice

her APT is nice

and macklin (?) has an even BETTER apt...tiny has two floors really interesting and in a cute neighborhood

the best thing about meeting new people is finding new places and eating new food

annnnnnnd free couscous or mussels....

depends on what night you go i guess but there is some cafe that gives you free food if you buy beer which seems rather backwards to me but fine...i think i would make someone else drink my beer tho cuz i really don't like beer....

that's the problem with going out tho...you have to get something because you can't just loiter but if you buy juice or soda for like five euros you feel really really gipped and with good reason lol but cocktails are expensive and beer is gross and drinking is overrated so i dunno i'm gonna have to come up with a strategy lol cuz i don't mind GOING out but i don't really like spending money on things that i don't really want lol even if it's only juice or something...they should sell candy bars in bars or something...haha candy...bars...ha...but they should...then i could just go to a bar for dessert...even if they overcharged you and made you pay like three euros it would still be better than five euro juice...

we saw some very expensive designer stores today in our history class...

supposedly there WILL be a test at the end contrary to what i have previously been told by other people

this is unfortunate because it's REALLY impossible to tell what is important...

i hope there isn't a test for my lit class because that would be even more impossible...probably most impossible...he just goes on and on i dunno what they could even ask us...i would have trouble writing questions for a test like that because none of it really seems very important...at all...

ha...

kind of like allll my classes right now

tomorrow is film...i will pack a sandwich...because after class and everything i MUST MUST MUST (!!!) return to that infernal library where you can't check anything out and SIT THERE and RESEARCH until i fall over

which is basically what happened today i was REALLY tired...

which bites cuz technically i got enough sleep

oh and i get to talk to datif tomorrow about the OTHER paper that is actually due on FRIDAY and which i will cry about but not until six thirty at night so i will have to do it all after that...which is awful...and i will cry

cuz i want to see if he knows what the assignment is that i apparently didn't do well enough last time...

well this has gotten exceedingly long...i don't think i left anything thrilling out tho so that's it...

again with the jackets

school is boring and i should've brought a sweatshirt.

LAST night tho I went to Jenny's house. I officially met her at MICEFA when I went to turn in my paperwork. We watched Hedwig and the Angry Inch which was uber cool. There were some other people including a kid's mom who made homemade burritos with tortillas from scratch. Was amazing. Unfortunately it was also after midnight but hey...

oh well

so I stayed up till like 4 and talked to Dann for a while. He likes it better with two Ns cuz it balances out his last name which also has four letters.

Then I went to bed and like I said school is boring and i should've brought a sweatshirt.

Xav has taken an interest in Eurovision...this is interesting. I haven't gotten the chance to hear everything yet...

Oh, I also got invited to go to Amsterdam, Berlin, and Prague over vacation. We'd be really slummin' cuz we're both broke. But not really cuz hostels are usually pretty nice...altho I wonder if you need the card. I dunno. I don't have a backpack either. Chris might let me use his...

I dunno if I will go. I would like to, but it's during one of the plays and the anime convention...but then I am in Europe so it seems like maybe I should take advantage of the fact and save the Japanese things for Japan...

Ho hum...

I'm in a lousy mood.

too sexy for my jacket

man the weather is annoying me. last week and this morning i was stupid and went out without a coat and lived to regret it...had to go home and grab it and waste all that time. Today it wasn't too bad cuz i had to go home for lunch anyhow...the problem is that the hour I spent at my house was the hour that it warmed up so now it is almost too warm for even my sweatshirt and I'm carrying this big winter coat around...grr!!!

i guess i can go pick up my passport tomorrow so that is good...

i should wash some socks tonite...

this afternoon i am planning on accomplishing some things but i still hate thinking about the all work i have to do...wish I could just take my coat home and go study kanji in the park. Tomorrow I am allotting time for satellite NHK at the MCJP!!! :D

sooooooo the eurovision song contest video and audio clips are finally up so everyone should go watch them

http://eurovision.tv

how exciting! romania's song is the best of the one's i've heard so far...altho which is the one with the girl with the bow and arrow? brett actually liked that one BETTER than romania which i think is a bit much lol but it was good :D

there is a smartcar parked across the street http://www.thesmart.co.uk/index.html it's black and silver...what funny things they are. I wonder if you automatically die if you crash in one of those. Small cars are cute but they don't seem very safe o_o

and the one true victory of the day is that i found chocolate soja at MY grocery store for ONLY a euro fifty. this is much cheaper than amy has been buying it for and much closer than a bio store. altho i would still like to go to a bio store to see if they have better yogurt...

hmm...

my vocab is improving! cuz i've been reading so much...which is nice...i don't have to look up words like "soulagement" or "angoisse" anymore.

...

yeah so really there's not that much going on!! the week can be over now!! XD

lonely 2s

yeah that's the grade i got on my first summary...which to be fair is cuz i wasn't sure what he was looking for...but that doesn't mean that my next one will be any better

the in class one is THIS friday

i was wrong

and the anime con is the end of THIS month

not may

i don't think...

uhm

blah

soooooo friday was long and crummy

but i saw sergey...that was nice. he is leaving on his internship soon

saturday was good. we had japanese but not bento because oddly enough the place was nonexistant? or something? the address they gave seemed to go to an apartment building...but we went to a different place. I had katsu don which is pork, onions, and egg fried in something tasty on a bowl of rice. brett had miso ramen but hated it so much she didn't eat it...O_O i thought it was fine but i was sooo full. i felt bad that we left it there...

then go class was so hard!! that game is crubazuby...simple rules but soooo complicated to actually play. there are so many spots i never know where to go...i guess you get better with experience!!! hopefully i will improve o_o the teacher guy was pretty nice...but they scold you if you make same mistake twice...but it's helpful. you feel so dumb you could NEVER possibly want to do it again. there was one sorta kno-it-all so i dunno why he went with the total beginners and then his dad was there and these two other people. first they went through the rules and then the teacher played all five of us at once. i lost horribly the first time and won the second time but i dunno how i managed to do that and probably it was because he helped me a few times...heh. and of course we are all playing on a four stone handicap cuz we are beginners...

the movie was soooo depressing...SO depressing....Ukigumo or Floating Cloud. It was good but so sad. This girl meets this dude during the war while they are stationed in indochina and he is supposed to get divorced for her and doesn't and they have this sort of tragic pathetic episodic thing for a while and she is miserable and leading a dead-end life and ends up going back to the guy who raped her and treated her like a prostitute for three years while she lived at his house and etc etc then she finally begs tomioka (the guy) to take her with him to his new job on an island cuz she can't live without him so he does and then she ends up getting sick and DYING and he realizes what he could've had but wasted and by this time his wife and other side girl are both dead too and i dunno...everyone died and/or was miserble...and i'm reading the book now!!! gosh so sad...

uhm lunch club was at my place today where we had soup that was too big for the pot so i have a HUGE mess to clean up...and the crepes were messy too...GOSH lots of cleaning

and then homework...

nothing too much going on this week

all my french friends are off doing other things seems like so i'm just kinda doing my work and reading and trying to find time to chill...i guess

saturday is go class and probably more japanese food...so i'm looking forward to next weekend

then next week i get to go see a play at the MCJP

altho i think i picked a seat too far forward...the supertitles might give me a neckache...x_x i should've known better

so it goes!! i'm sure it will be really cool!!

basically i just can't wait until next weekend...and i hope i can get my research going more...getting these books is such a stupid thing...i'm just frusterated with everything and my grades for my lit class are coming out lousy so far so i dunno what to do. i just want school to end...couple months and then things will be better. i hope my exams are early so i have lots of time to just chill and enjoy the beginning of summer.

stressed out and other things too

This morning was chilly. I still didn't wear a coat though. Between being here and then if I move to California I will become a total wimp. You will see me at Christmas and laugh while I cry over the snow and the freezing.

Today I finished reading Learning to Bow FINALLY I had to take a bit of a break...because there was no time to go to the MCJP. Now I MAKE time. I also started Acts of Reading which is a book about reading in Japanese for natives and then about the experience for students of the language and strategies for teaching. It is very interesting...even tho I only got through the introduction. When I walked downstairs there was a calisthenics segment on the NHK tv...

Tonite I will study kanji and read in French. I also really need to collect some sources...quite a few actually. Meaning...well...all of them. For some reason I'm having a really hard time getting this project going...I think the libraries do not help. Tricky libraries... v_v Hmm so I will do that while I am here...look up the books I will try to reserve tomorrow and then gather some websites. I dunno. This paper is really scary.

I also need to eat. Class today was so boring but afterwords I got a banana. Dinner will be couscous and tuna and possibly carrot salad.

I can't wait for Saturday. If I can get through tomorrow everything will be great. BENTO!! I can't believe it.

ALSO to my EXTREME ECSTASY there is going to be a huge anime convention here in Paris at the end of May. Right before my daddy (HAPPY BIRTHDAY :D) is coming to visit!! For this reasn I will try to spare ALL unnecessary expensive EVEN MORE than I already am so I can go and have a good time. I have to go check out the website. It will be my FIRST CON EVER!!! :D

I have moved on in my métro reading to a book about the educational and therapeutic uses of Go which is interesting. It's written by a 9th dan (which i THINK its the highest level...altho I'm not sure...) professional player who went to various institutions with a simplified version of the game. He is Japanese but the book is translated into French. He talked about how even the little five year olds would stay calm and just play Go; they really got into it. I hope there will be little kids in the class I go to on Saturday. That would be so cool! I wonder if there will be mostly French or Japanese people... Probably I will be the only American...lol.

Hmmm...I'm trying to think of anything else interesting going on. I saw Dr Kinsey last night with Emily, Clara, Dann (he has informed me it includes two ns), and Miguel. I was just getting home but it didn't take much to get me out to a movie lol. It was SUPER cheap too!!! Only 4€90 because they are having this deal where if you buy a ticket you get a coupon. I have two more coupons because my friends both have this unlimited pass so they don't have to pay but they still get the discount things so they gave them to me. It's so easy to save money sometimes.

I realized I need to find a shirt to go with my pants from Express. I have a really cool sweater but here I think it is too warm to wear. Luckily I still have a couple weeks to consider this...

Well I have to go website hunting so that will be it...

hungry blue rain glasses

but not necessarily in that order?

why is my font italic? i think this computer must be strannnnnnge

it looks like i'm talking to you out of a fuzzy dream edge (like on tv)

but actually your mind has fuzzy dream edges too...i forget how far your "mind's eye" can see...

hummmmm

so the réserve centrale is ACTUALLY a reserve...unfortunately i became enlightened a bit late in the game lol so i will have to go tell my prof here is a list of books i have ORDERED from the library so i can write my rought draft of the first two pages in my paper the night before it is due...*cry*

i bought tickets for japanese plays!! i'm excited

also i'm going to go class on saturday :D

AND there was this free mag with all the Japanese grocery stores listed and one of them serves BENTO o_o (Japanese box lunch) OHMYGOSH

ooh i like that better that OMIGOD lol it conveys the same WOW without the 13YEAROLDGIRL

hahaha

no no so i'm gonna go eat bento on saturday and then go study go and then go see a FREE movie because we love the MCJP

i want to eat pizza tonite...

and then i want to eat everything i have at home as fast as possible so i can go buy IMPORTED JAPANESE RICE!!! YES!!!

§§§§

looks like tadpoles :D

lol

§§§§

§ it's the paragraph sign...

my prof drew it on the board the other day

i have a summary to write for him...

i finished looking up all the words this afternoon but i was too tired so i took a small nap and then a shower but then i was too hungry lol

hmmm

lol i sense a little NOT WANTING TO DO FRENCH HOMEWORK: tooooo bad.

lol

i will have to finish when i get home!!!

and then look up some words in my novel

tomorrow i have to order library books annnnnnd read more

i'm reading a book about go in the subway...it's in French....

Go is the oldest boardgame IN THE WORLD. It's from probably China but got really popular in Japan and that's how it spread around. It would be cool to get good at that.

So I was reading my book but my stop was coming up and this guy was like, "You play Go?" only in French and so we talked about it for a while. Apparently he was a student where I had class today. He said I should learn Chinese as well as Japanese and Vietnamese or Korean too. I said ok LOL LOL LOL but of course I'm gonna SPECIALIZE...none of this sector crud. Then he said he studied like 3 or 4 or 5 or some amount of languages...sounded like near east i think...i don't remember...he said them really fast...but something like that. AND THEN he was like "well good luck" and KISSED MY HAND...that was scary...who goes around kissing girls' hands they meet in the subway??? x_x

ODD

so i have to leave but i hope everyone is having a good day ^_^

the return of lunch club

today was at amy's house and she made chicken and couscous and vegies and it was SUPAH good

i was a dork and forgot the milk to make crepes with so we're putting them off for the second week in a row x_x

there was also this AWESOME cheese and bread and strawberries

yay

we went for a walk and blah blah

oh but last night i went out even tho i didn't really want to

we had some sushi and then went to this karaoke bar which was kinda boring but ok

there were some people with really good voices

and then there were some people who didn't know what they were doing :D

i didn't sing so i can't really talk hehehe

i should actually go out for yakitori and sushi sometime...I only had a snack last night but it made me want more Japanese food...when i get back to the states I'm going on a hardcore Izumi's run LOL

wheee i need to do laundry so bad but i'm out of soap i just realized so i will have to put it off till tomorrow

aiiie!!! lol

californiaaaaaaa, californiaaaaaaa

here we coooooooome

well not quite yet...i guess lol gotta get accepted first...

www.pacific.edu

anyhow so i wish i could upload the rest of my app for rochester too but that's not working...in any case if i get in a pacific i will most likely go there. the crummy news is i will probably have to start just about, if not all, over because the japanese program at uwm, as intensive as it sometimes SEEMS, is really not at all...

>_<

it will be worth it tho!! (in terms of happiness and knowledge lol...paying for school bites lol or rather...it WILL bite...when i am a poor translator!!! XD at least i will be a translator...or something...you KNOW i'll be SOMEthing)

so there are many interesting things going on:

the manga café is nihongo only...just raw stuff lol so even tho i trekked out there lugging my french dictionary i didn't read anything...i found a really good looking café tho...i gotta go back there sometime...

i checked out an anime store...it was really happy looking at all the posters and things!!!

the mcjp was groovy...and their new schedule is out...there is some famous percussionist guy coming in may who i definitely want to go see...concerts and things there are only 9 euros cuz i'm a student!!! o_o

i got my book for lit...it's pretty short and the print is HUGE so hopefully it will be not tooooo hard. it's called, "Le Chasseur Zéro" It's about a girl who is...haunted by a kamikaze?? or she's insane? both? i'm not sure lol should be interesting tho

i got my package from my aunt sue and there is ALL kinds of happy food in there! between what my mom sent and what she sent i will only have to shop for fruit and meat lol

ching chi-ching ching chinnng chinnng

uhm...well we didn't see a movie last night...but i talked to mojikun :D that was fun

tomorrow i HAVE to do laundry...or maybe tonite...

banana!!!! XD

ha

well ok i read the date wrong...it's due the fifth of may lol

i still have a lot to do tho but now i'm motivated

i like having nice teacher because then not only do you want to do well for yourself and your grade, but also for your teacher who is so cool and smart and expounding every week for all of your young benefits lol i dunno...maybe the rest of the class doesn't feel that way...lol

but i do :D

so today in a flurry of word-processing which i will hopefully never have to equal again...i completed everything that was really supposed to be done today. quality may have suffered a bit, which is something i regret to my very core, so i really am going to work harder. also my french is abominable sometimes lol.

i need one of those japanese classroom signs, only it has to say

Let's spell correctly and use the right prepositions when we do our French homework!!! ^_^

please let me not fail!!!

lol

plans for the weekend include a MUCH anticipated return to the MCJP and maybe a trip to a place or two from the Japanese culture article i read the other day...like maybe the manga cafe or something...

maybe i will see a movie...but i will DEFINITELY go find the book to read for my report and start it and

DEFINITELY start doing my homwork for next friday...it's nice tho...i cuz i have no pressing homework for my other classes...in fact for my film class i have nothing except a couple make-up movies next week so is cool. i COULD theoretically work on my paper for my history class but it is certainly not due in any way lol and even if it were it would just be the second part not a big deal...

this lit class is first year but it is technical and challenging as heck and really in depth...i'm just totally not used to it...it's really interesting tho when i can follow what's going on...most of the time i have at least a vague idea but today i was a little beyond vague... >_< lol

ching! i think hopefully tonite emanuel and i and maybe dan or someone i dunno will rent a french movie and chill altho not till later...i wonder if i will even be awake lol

yarg

today is not going so well...my lexo project got finished but crummily because one of the books I needed was nonexistent

i went to a library that was closed

a library that didn't have the book they were supposed to have

and the school library

i also ran into my supah lit prof and was enlightened to the fact that the prix goncourt dealio (conventiently worth 25% of my grade for the entire three part class) is due a week from tomorrow *the crying*

can i give up now?

i seriously thought i had like a month at least to finish that

and now i have a week

it's gonna be sheer luck or lack of any sort of sleep if i get the stuff i still have to do for tomorrow done tonite...

ugh ugh ugh

today WAS well planned but it kinda died...

tomorrow is going to be excessively long

i'm tiiiiiiirrrrred...

have to keep working tho...

maybe this weekend i will get up to something interesting

today

so emily and i are going to rufus :D this time it will be with his band too XD i can't wait

hmm so i did some homework and stuff...blah blah

oh i got pasta with spinach and cheese and for some reason i thought it would have REAL FRESH ingredients lol but no...it was a funny little green paste wrapped in the noodles...ah well tho it wasn't so bad

also...i thought i didn't like nectarines but i couldn't remember why i thought it so i bought a couple cuz they were out of bananas...and now i remember lol

ALSO i tried to buy a mars bar but the machine gave me snickers...lol

which was tasty but unexpected

and as stated in my previous comment...emily has peeps!!!!

lalala...

OMIGOSH i found a sandwich with ham AND cheese AND vegies/egg...that is AMAZING...usually you only find a combo of one or two of those things...but this sandwich had it all...it was sooooo good i nearly cried...altho it was more expensive lol

and so today i actually took one of those free newspapers they are always trying to push on you at the metro exits and there was a feature on japanese culture in paris!!! so i have addresses for stores and culture centers and even a manga cafe where you pay by the hour to chill with ze comics...it's cheaper than buying them ne

HOW COOL XD

now i just need some free time...*wanders off to write a paper...or two*

surfing

It's really interesting to take a look at other people's blogs. There are people from EVERYWHERE on here and lots of them are lucky ducks with digicams so they post crazy stuff. The world is HUGE!!!!!! o_o

Other than that not much to report. I watched some TV last night jugglers and magicians, also the human paperdoll. While there were no commercial breaks, they had celebs plugging their stuff in between every act so...it was exACTly like commercials.

Gotsa finish my net packet for lit class...

oh yeah and HAPPY B-DAY EVA cuz I bet I'm the first one...it's only quarter to three in the morning there ;p

ugh i have too much work

I got a couple writing assignments done today...trying to get the measly crud out of the way first...but even those take time...

Too much time >_<

Lunch Club was fun. I was the only one who knew about the time change so I ended up getting Chris out of bed. Renée and her boyfriend missed his flight this morning o_o but luckily they figured out a way to get him where he was going. I guess it's a common problem. The airport people probably say the day before, "yeah tomorrow is gonna bite cuz the time changes tonite and we're gonna have to deal with all the dopes who forget...*sigh*" this must just be part of the job stress related to airline work. Of course the only reason I knew about it was cuz Steve told me lol

Anyhow for lunch we had pasta with this yummy sauce with mushrooms and salmon in it. I even at the mushrooms.

Amy brought some hardcore desert. Chocolate pastry with marshmallow stuff and also a cream puff sort of pastry only shaped like a duck or something. Hmm...they were tasty. We all got to split them up and try both. Except Chris doesn't like chocolate so he had a duck.

DUCK

You know I miss my trumpet...and my sax to but really my trumpet. I should pick it back up again when I go home.

This afternoon I borrowed Datif's broom and swept my floor. It was disgusting lol. These rooms really collect dust.

Tomorrow I will have to get more work done. Lunch was pleasant today but it lasted far too long. I didn't get home until quarter after 5 or something.

So this case of the brain damaged woman being starved to death in the news all over is somewhat distressing. I did notice that some people from UWM were commenting on it though, that is interesting. But no, I mean if what they are going to do is let kill her why does it have to be in such a horrible way, esp when no one can seem to agree on weather starving to death is an ok way to go or whether she feels things or not. I guess it's that no national euthanasia policy thing...but it's really alarming nonetheless. I mean it seems to me that if the end result is death, the quickest and most painless route should be taken. Issues like this are very interesting to debate but it would better if there weren't real-world applications for some of them because no one will ever agree and sometimes even individuals aren't sure themselves.

One thing I am excited about doing when I get home is reading. I also think that translations are nice...even tho if you can read in the original it's better.

I also think...

that this is gonna be another one of those long evil weeks.

But hopefully I will not be depressed this time.

Getting a move on

Ah yes. This morning it is Easter and it is also the day Euro-folk lose their hour of spring sleep in favor of less darkness...or something like that. Yes I'm 8 hours ahead of Wisconsin until you crubazuberies spring forward next week.

Not like it matters.

Just an interesting thing.

This is really just a quick note because LUNCH CLUB is today and I have to do some dishes and accomplish some things before I leave!!! Like a shower!!! Anyhow I hope that Chris' directions are good enough cuz I cannot take going out and not being able to get into the place again!! (Like two weeks ago!!)

Time is FLYIN'

Speaking of which o wow I have some MICEFA paperwork to turn in...I had better get that done this week as well.

This week is THE week. The week I will either catch up or die!!!

Give me punctuality or give me death!

I'm already behind on my morning schedule!!! O WOE!

a pretty saturday

Hmm it's nice out. Datif came home this morning for a bit so I met his dog and lent him some bread. I wonder if the MCJP is open today cuz that was what I was going to do. Really I should go to the park tho lol. It's so nice :D I hope Monday is this nice so we can all s'amuser bien.

Did I already talk about the anime version of Little Women? They play it on 5 on Saturdays. It's cute but dubbed. Hmm I can watch TV from Algeria.

lol

happy easter er-head ;p

and everyone else too

tra di la hoo haa

SO then...

i had a greek sandwich for dinner and it was TASTY XD

and i'm hanging out in Datif's room cuz he lent it to me FOR THE WEEKEND XD

yes!!!

altho the tv is too clever for me...there must be a trick to it lol

kinda like my old one HA HA HA

so let's see...yesteday was supah rainy and somewhat lousy. I got all cute and then got soaked so I had to go home and try to make do. I also had to stand during the movie for class...cuz I'm short lol (but not as short as 130 cm)

can someone convert 5'4" into centimeters for me? this calls for some participation!! my blog is a TWO WAY STREET LOL like English class

or French class for that matter

so last night I saw Be Cool WHICH i have to admit I was not really that interested in seeing but it turned out VERY funny and VERY (appropriately) cool. We laughed the whole time. It was also sort of campy in a way that I appreciated. cuz who can't appreciate some camp?

you know Dan was telling me that "camp" refers to gay culture but i've never heard it used that way...i only know the one for crazy old horror movies hehehe altho that is more broadly applicable. See according to Dan Celine Dion is campy. (Is that how you spell her name?)

group participation everyone!!!

let us discuss what certainly merits discussion

so then after the movie we went out for Indian food which was SUPER and Greg told me he went backpacking in India for two months. I think that is extremely awesome. So anyhow he's really into Indian food and we ate curry and it was reallllly good. I had chicken and egg...which...I never thought of putting egg in...but it was rerooster WHICH lol it finally dawned on me the other day that re doesn't really resemble ri in anyway except phonetically but we're going to leave it cuz rirooster looks funny.

That's what I have to say!!!! V_V

lol

Anyhow so that was great and this restaurant REALLY wanted us to eat there so they gave us free bread and we also got a free rosy colored aperitif.

And then I forgot my bag cuz I'm a dork lol

but luckily I remembered beFORE i got on the train so i said by to greg and was sitting there and then RAN back to the restaurant where some lady was interrupted by me with my silly French "excusez-moi, j'ai oublié mon sac" hey at least i said mon and not ma lol i said "un soeur" the other day...lol that is just CALAMITY

caaaaaLAMity

anyhow...

so today was a better day...very sunshiny and warm. there were some protestors but i didn't understand what they were shouting. i went to class in the morning and my lit profs are just the greatest. They deserve medals or something. They make me feel like I might actually be able to catch up, which is nice. In the afternoon I had another class and that went ok except HOLY CRUD BUCKETS do those French kids know how to ignore their teachers. I felt SO BAD FOR HIM. These poor guys...I think they are TAs. Well really it's just the one...for some reason my other class listens...but this ONE guy they just all must hate him or something. He's up there expounding and writing and explaining things that seem to me, from the snatches I get between not being fluent and the people practically shouting behind me, to be very interesting and NO ONE is listening except for like three people in the very front. I will be up there next week cuz I need to hear what he is talking about!!!!

And then TO MY GREAT SURPRISE I found Datif AT HOME. I'm like 3 for 30 or something lol. The average is very bad. Anyhow he was on his way out for the weekend and now I have his keys.

OH MAN the weirdest thing: I have realized that I now really like fries. I never used to care about them and now I find myself thinking "hmm i could really use some fries" That is SO STRANGE. Beyond beyond.

Well I may be forgetting something but the great thing about it is that I can always tell you TOMORROW or the NEXT DAY for FREE.

BWAH HAHAHAHAHAH!!! XD

lol

I'm a geek. ^_^

a dishearteningly tiny victory

Well aside from my hopes being crushed to bits that I could go ONE day without being depressed, this is what happened this afternoon:

I went home and read like a banshee after having a snack.

and read

and read

and read

all the rest of that messed up book (see entry title)

it really is messed up...all the characters are evil and weak

anyhow...

then i had dinner with too much cheese on top

going out tomorrow will be a nice change of pace from the pesto. as much as i love pesto it probably isn't a good idea to have it ALL week LONG

then i went on a walk and ended up in the metro on my way here...

dude tho i'm now scared of parisian gutters cuz i've seen two guys in the past week just peeing nonchalantly from the sidewalk...i wonder if that is just my neighborhood...

on the subway there was this really cute girl playing games with her dad...she had weird teeth but she was still really cute. her clothes were all shades of red that didn't match but it didn't look bad. little kids can pull that kind of thing off.

on an upnote i got mail from my lit prof. he is so nice. apparently we have class at 9 instead of at 1 on friday. This is kinda lousy because it means I will have to be there allllll day lonnnnng cuz my other class is at 2...but then i guess i have a helluva lot of work to do in the library so it will be ok. I wonder if everyone else will have the same idea tho...could mean stretched resources hum hum hummmmm

after tomorrow all i want is the weekend...

Dust on my monitor

Ah well I forgot to say that my mom sent me LOADS of EASTER CANDY including the BEST chocolate eggs in the WOLRD.

Aside from that there is actually a great deal of dust on my monitor.

Also it seems that I have indeed NOT gone home to study. I will perhaps read in the park...

My profile should hopefully be updated by the time this is posted...

Dude there was something else I was gonna say but it's been lost forever...

dang lol

Tomorrow, my freedom!

Well not really, but momentarily...I will hang with Greg AND will NOT think about homework. XD

I think I need to get my lit teacher to understand that I will need some extra time...that I will have to make my own schedule based on the FINAL due date and not freak out over every other mid project deadline. My own special foreign student topic, my own special foreign student schedule. I think that sounds fair...

I need to e-mail him.

WELLLLLLL

Aside from that I am near the end of the novel. Which is good because my OTHER class requires that I have an outline for a paper making some point about the title character. I am no good at this. That alone will require a heroic effort.

The only problem with extending the dates on the first mentioned paper is that for that SAME class we have another huge thing due next week having to do with dictionaries and encyclopedias and in general just a whole lot MORE research that may or may not be the end of me. This is something that you just don't DO at any school I've ever been to so I am completely unprepared...

Next week though, will be the continuation of my new and improved (time-wise) schedule. The only thing I don't like about it is the way one feeeels as tho one is descending into the pit of hellllll as the week goes onnnnn. Monday and Tuesday are soooo easy with only one hour of class just taking notes...never anything to prepare (at least i don't THINK we're supposed to be preparing anything...). Wednesday is mostly boring with two hours of history and not much to prepare...as far as I understand it there is just one paper to be handed in in increments throughout the semester and then once as a completed "dossier" at the end. Tomorrow is lit and cinema WHICH i have to decipher some things for still...and make up some movies i missed...alth i know there are other people who have also missed them so that should be a breeze...but then FRIDAY are BOTH of the SCARY classes for a full FOUR HOURS of TERROR x_x *cry*

The cool thing is that my app for the university of Rochester is almost complete and there is no rush as they accept them until June. That is nice...

*ching*

I'm very tempted to go study Japanese at the MCJP as I haven't been there in a while...but I think my time would be more productively spent by... ...studying Japanese at the MCJP hahaHA isn't THAT the KILLER? no but really i should do my French homework because French, it's a good thing to have around. (I miss linguistics...check out that displacement!!!)

got my soul education (dammit!!)

as for the pocketful of rainbows, i think it's in my other pants...

errrrm so the weekend was a bit dismal...

and i think i have officially had my mid-college crisis

I'm not a Russian major anymore...

Ever since I got here all I'm doing is destroying my identity, growing my hair, changing majors, WHAT'S NEXT???

So I'm applying to the university of Rochester which is TOO expensive but they have Japanese and they are nice and waive the app fee if you fill out the forms online.

I decided to drop my Russian classes instead of the History of Paris because I think I have a better chance of passing History of Paris...

Everyone wants PAPERS tho.

The only constant thing has been this lousy mood and my terror in the face of my lit class. I don't know enough about France, French, or LIT for that matter, to be taking this class.

What really makes me mad is that if I would've had this miserable revelation BEFORE coming here then I could've picked a friendlier school and had way better classes and a much more organized life. As it stands I have a measly 12 credits and six of them I am on my way to failing. At least six...

I don't know.

Anyhow so I'm not going to Russia. I should start a tab for all the mistakes I make instead of paying for them upfront...

Like I said tho I will probably be transferring.

If I could find a school in NYC that would be better. I could keep some of my MICEFA friends better that way.

Or maybe I should go to California. In fact I should look in California.

That is a good idea...

park

i went to the jardins de luxembourg today...altho i dunno if i spelled it right which is sad

it's a nice big park

i had a milkshake from le quick which really hit the spot and then just kinda wandered...i should've sat down but i didn't anyhow it's better to be there than to sit on the lawn in front of the residence like i did for a bit with some people yesterday

anyhow at the park they have tennis courts and uhm that one game that all the old guys play...i watched some dudes for probably almost an hour...they just keep going and going i would probably get sick of it...it's the one where they toss the balls...it might just be called boules...i don't remember...but at one point i knew a bit more about it

and there were silly teenagers having water fights and lots of people sitting all over the place. i found out that barbapapa the cartoon character gets his name from the word for cotton candy

so i bought some net time at a place by the park...this is a nice neighborhood. there are lots of stores and the Panthéon is just down the road...there is a quick and macdo competing across the streets over there...

i wish i wasn't feeling so horrible...it's a really nice day...they put grass down on the sidewalks around here...rolled it out this morning maybe...it's interesting...

i have no idea what i'm doing tonite

Don't rock the boat

far too late for that

well i wrote yesterday but it got erased...

so that's depressing...

mostly things are going lousily

i don't even remember what i wrote about yesterday...it's too bad cuz it was going to be worth waiting for hopefully or at least interesting enough to bother with...

not only do i not remember what i wrote, but i no longer really remember what i got up to all week so the point is just completely obliterated...

[insert catching title here]

Well it has certainly been a while. I'm pretty much out of net time. It's funny because I was going to go on a rave about Datif and I realized I already did. I met him in the elevator ne, and here I am on his computer cuz he roxxorz.

I met a librarian and a psychiatrist. They were both interesting in their own ways. The librarian was cooler; he told me to push people in the subway to get on crowded trains. :D lol

I have never had so much work to do in my entire life (including middle school and I, if no one else, remember the horror that was). I went to film and we watched a movie about Algeria. Hmm...it was ok but I was kinda tired. The floor was uncomfortable enough to keep me awake tho. The only other class I hadn't already been to was TDB for my lit class. It is a summary and paper writing class. How DEADLY X_X *perishes at the thought*

ganbarou o_o

I want to import some encouraging signs from Japanese grade school classrooms. I think they could brighten my day as well. (I learn so much at the MCJP :D)

I'd like to start swimming but I don't think I can afford a swimming suit. I mean I COULD but then I couldn't afford to actually GO to the pool. hahaha nah i'd probably be ok but i really need to cut it out with the money stuff...altho lately it's been going to study materials so i don't feel toooo bad

On the 22 Greg and I are gonna hang out. This is sweet. I'm so glad he didn't really fall off the planet. He's just a slave is all...

I read part of this history book to get a better grasp on the nineteenth century in France and it didn't work so I feel like it was a waste of time lol.

My lit classes are really great. TDA is a research class so we learned about reference materials. This might sound really basic and stupid but it was actually really...good. We used old encyclopedias and historical dictionaries and Bible encyclopedias o_o Tomorrow is part one of the early meetings for the CM

travaux dirigés - like a discussion but not really a discussion...guided work...
cours magistraux - a big huge lecture

I'm gonna sit up front so those paper-rumpling chicks won't bother me :D

So yesterday...I studied and went to the MCJP. Then I went out to this bar that I keep forgetting the name of where I had a Maitai. This is quite a good drink. I only ordered it cuz Lily drinks them. Xav you should tell Lily I felt inspired. I mean unless she read this. Lily if you read this you have to comment and say something about how great Maitais are. LOL Holy cow tho it was 11 euros; glad I wasn't buying cuz that's nearly 15 bux. THAT is one great reason to NEVER go out. That and I don't really like bars...at all. LOL which I fear I made fairly apparent...but oh well ;p

Today was a NIGHTMARE. The idea was to buy chinese pastries to take to the lunch club but then i never made it to the lunch club...so i'm sharing the pastries with my other friends. Man tho it was awful...tons of time in the métro AND FOR WHAT...i was lost but then i found the place and couldn't figure out how to get in...or buzz her and whatever cuz my phone was broke i couldn't contact her at all : / and i still can't cuz i don't have her e-mail...i'll see her on thursday tho...

anyhow i studied and got happy e-mails and am hanging with Datif. (we study like mad crazy ;D)

Datif says to say: whatever i want

lol that is no help

he is "un enfant du monde" --a child of the world :D

and so we will study i guess now...i have soooo much CRUD to do...homework up and down the river...

and up again

o_O

~dUcK!

habits pay off

as long as they are good...like always buying tasty sandwiches from the oriental lady who must LIVE at that counter...

i didn't have any cash on me and couldn't think of enough things to buy to get the amount up to 5 euros so she said i could come back and pay her tomorrow...TOMORROW (!!!) lol i've gotten people to let me run home and back directly when i forgot my card or something in the states but she was just like, "tomorrow, no big deal" :D

there was a talented man on the subway today who did a monologue which included a song

today i had History of Paris and took lots of notes but apparently she gives us a write up on every lesson the following week...also we went on a visit which was unfortunately half-identical to a tour i had already been on...oh well...it's just a bummer to have to drag all your books around for an hour i guess...in addition, i heard we have to write some paper about our neighborhood...i guess i won't be able to escape this exercise (think back to the orientation class that i quit in the nick of time....)

i was gonna research a bit but i think instead i will go nextdoor and see if they have a book about the 19th century...cuz i need to learn SWIFTLY...i guess it will have to be in french...*sigh sigh sigh* I've been reading a lot of a lot of things lately but it's hard to keep it up!! you get tired and buggy after a while *_*

did i talk about the guy i met in the elevator? i don't remember...but he's pretty nice i went to go say hi last night and he was SO happy o_o we talked until midnight o_o about all sorts of random things...and almost exclusively in French :D he likes to talk so it's cool. also he made pretty tasty spaghetti. ah! and he has the net and said i could come by and study or whatever anytime and borrow his books and he even tried to give me plates lol he is well stocked cuz his parents live just over there *waves in a general direction that is probably wrong*

this afternoon i studied japanese and read at the MCJP. i finished the book i had been working on so i picked another that seems like a more general look at japanese culture but still through the eyes of a teacher so there will be school stuff...i also found a "comprehensive reader" which is good practice with kanji.

french is nice :D

i smile again

hmm classes went surprisingly well...luckily she didn't quiz us on verbs...we stuck to aspect which i am usually smart on but wow she threw me for a loop when she said you can use words like "toujours" with the passé composé...that shatters what i know o_o

i'm gonna ask greg about that...

assuming he e-mails me back :D

what else what else...

lit went well...i did some of the evil packet and it wasn't really that evil...it feels like fake warm-up research...which in a way, it kind of is...

i still don't undestand the difference between cotes salles and cotes magasins tho...

cousin bette is interesting so far...altho i'm not too far

i'm super interested in lit now...i really like the lectures our prof gives...it's too bad he has to work so hard tho...french lecture halls sounds are SO nosy. he has to eternally "please" everybody while tapping the mic...i understand most of what he says but it's sometimes hard to understand what he said and why he was saying it at the same time (or really ever cuz if you're not doing it when he says it you're not likely to have it dawn upon you later) i guess i could tape the lectures but most of the time it seems like my missing it is due to someone rustling or conversating far too loudly

i think next time i'll get over it and go sit up front further

cuz i really do like his lectures

also i still haven't talked to him...this is perhaps a problem

ah ha and i also discovered that there is more time to this class than i thought...actually it comes out to six hours a week so i wonder if i get credit for all that...

it's confusing

and it's funny cuz did i already say that profs seem to feel like they can add time to their classes if they want? i think i did...but next week i have lit bright and early at 8 monday morning...it'll be good as long as i go to bed

last night i stayed up too late putting accents over russian verbs...too bad that was TOTALLY unimportant lol

i hope my translation was ok...it seemed a little...CRUMMY lol

i was hoping to get by today without a snack but it's sooo not gonna happen i had lunch at twelve and now i'm starving hahaha and i'm going to the MCJP which is SO open today so i can learn some honorifics and read like a banshee and write kanji till my arm falls off

XD

yay!

k-o tiz all... OH WAIT

i forgot to talk about the magical métro man o_o

i was riding home last night on the...four lol but i transfered from the seven cuz it was right after i left here and i was sitting there and there was this DUDE sitting across from this lady and her little boy. I missed what happened before cuz i had just gotten on the train but he was SUPER MAGICAL like the spirit of all French happiness or something. You NEVER see people who don't know each other talking in the subway and here he was with a long-stemmed rose and this hat and this jacket charming this little boy and trying to get him to sing a song. I thought HE would start singing any second. I felt like I was in a movie lol or really more like I was watching one. I wonder if anyone else in the car felt like that cuz many of the people there seemed interested in what was going on. If you think of the stereotypical French man-voice that sounds nice and happy and friendly then you are thinking of his. I dunno how this dude got so cheerful. Anyhow in the end the boy's mom was on the phone and the guy had to get off the train so he waved bye and the little boy was so cute and waved back how aDORable o_O Man it was the coolest thing in the world. I wish there were more people like that. I watched him walking down the quai as the train pulled away; he looked soooo happy :D

oYOY

so gosh i wrote a really great blog entry this morning long and detailed, witty and enlightening, THRILLING and full of ADVENTURE

unfortunately the connection got messed up and it got completely erased...

so it goes...

that is all lost to eternity now

this past weekend was decent despite being sick...

saturday night i went out for dinner (far too late but it was ok cuz i stayed up till almost five am making anime posters) to an american restaurant with renée and chris. I REALLY wanted to get a bacon cheeseburger but for some reason whenever i go out for burgers at good restaurants i get sick and i wasn't feeling terribly adventurous so i had grilled tuna with pesto, spinach, and tomatos instead. Needless to say it ROXXORED XD and then we all got dessert and they have good banana cream pie...or rather, the first banana cream pie i've seen since i got here. It doesn't quite match Beans & Barley but it was pretty groovy.

Then sunday the same two cats came over and i made curry with the my stuff and some stuff renée brought. So that was the first meeting of the sunday lunch club...altho someday we're gonna have to make it a brunch club and go to some crazy restaurant for breakfast XD cuz i could just eat breakfast all day long...breakfast food really is the best o_o

uhm after that we went to the musée d'orsay where my nose ran i mean...we saw art...lol

i also picked up the map in three languages (bet you can guess which--because english is boring)

haha there were these girls dashing around the van gogh gallery. Speaking of which in france you say van GUG (with a "uh" and a "g") not GO--anyhow one of these girls stopped the other and said: reGARDE c'est VinCENT van GOGH (gug). C'est MOCHE!!
LOOK it's VINcent van GOGH (go). It's UGly!

I found that amusing...she may have said it cuz it was a weird portrait where he looked like a rainbow carpet or maybe like he was growing mold...i dunno...just cuz you wouldn't want to eat him doesn't mean it's ugly : /

lol (in french you say mdr = mort de rire which i guess i would translate non-literally as "death by laughter")

what else...oh Howl's Moving Castle was a pretty good book. Not like the movie at all o_o but really cool. If I get my act together I may send it home so other people can read it. I think Lindsey might like it o_o or Eva or somebody...

Xav, you should read it too. Have you seen the movie yet? I guess it probably isn't out there yet...or is it? Maybe it is...o_o

What I have discoverd upon further perusal of my assignment for my TD in DLM100FR (lit) is that the book report is actually a SIDENOTE to the much larger and looslier structured paper. Did I discuss this in here already? Maybe not o_o I have to read a book that won the Goncourt Prize and write about that but the REAL assignment is to write a big huge paper about the prize itself. intro + two pages of history + four more pages of whatever i feel is pertinent + conc. i dunno how i'm gonna manage that o_o

anyhow and then there is the other class which...i dunno...i don't really understand how or if they are connected...but i have to read Cousin Bette which i DID find the translation of today so huzzah...

wheee and it's russian tomorrow so i should go home, eat, and study

imagine my immense sorrow when i got to the MCJP today and found it closed cuz i didn't note the MONDAYNESS of it all

tomorrow i won't have time to go...

i really really like their library...

i also decided i have to finish the DR book. I kinda lost track of it over the past couple weeks but it seems to be much of the same...coup d'états every five minutes and lots of corrupt dictators printing money, devaluing the currency...*sigh sigh sigh* I'm in the 20th century now tho so that is cool.

so to backtrack a bit i said i found Cousin Bette in English...WHERE i found it tho is more fun than actually having found it so i should mention it: Shakespeare & Co. is a little tiny bookstore crammed to the brim with English lit and some poetry history science russian things german things spanish things. It was really cool. It was dangerous. I let myself have Heart of Darkness as a reward but wow I wanted to read just about everything they had. It's nice that there's an english bookstore around...but it's also hella tempting.

hum well i will go blow my nose and learn some verbs or something...

that should keep me busy o_o

kwa

so i found that book yesterday. it was a major blizzard but we went out and got our feet very wet and frozen and i found the book...and realized the overwhelming impossibility of reading the original. i mean i COULD do it but it'd be more like deciphering than reading and i need to have it READ lol SOON so i'm not so freakin' behind...

school is a downer every time i think of it...i think i'd be learning more french (which i think was supposed to be the point...right?) if i weren't so worried and occupied and hating these classes...really it's just a bother...i have some french connections so i could just spend more time with those people and maybe if i wasn't in such a lousy mood always i would get up enough go-do to be outgoing once in a while.

i'm not really very good at school either...this ten page paper...i just have no idea what to write about...this literary prize...i don't think i can summon ten pages of intelligence on that...

plus i don't think i'm cut out to filter through a stack of books taller than me in the library all day

nor do i WANT to be cut out for it (so why practice?)

mostly i just wanted to speak decent french...i dunno why that is so much to ask for...

and then russian...i dunno what happened...was it all just a hypomanic dream? that was supposed to be my purpose in life and now what...i keep on chalking it up to the general confusion/identity crisis but it doesn't seem to fit...if it's really gone then i don't have a major anymore...unless i become a french major in which case rather than going to russia next year i should be moving out of paris into a small out of the way french place...

and then there's japanese...

i'm sick of thinking about all this junk

uhm...today i realized that my cell phone alarm is broken and that's why i can't seem to wake up on time...

this makes me mad...

i decided i'm going to treat myself to the novel that Howl's Moving Castle is based on...so i'm pretty excited about that...

i have some japanese movies to see today...i don't even really want to go...but i have tickets so i might as well and they will be good movies...i'm just still in a lousy mood

yesterday i did laundry and took out the trash and washed the dishes so that felt productive...but i still wish i had a broom...

and a mop...

i'm gonna see if emanuel will come shopping with me sometime...

also the window in my room doesn't close so a sweatshirt and my dictionary are holding it in a semi-closed position until it gets fixed...

bleck...now i just feel worse...anyhow time to go eat lunch and all that jazz...

getting sick again

really i think get sick just about every two months...it hasn't even BEEN two months yet...is that normal? I got sick at the end of summer, and i got sick about two months after that...i was sick in december and i was sick in the middle of january at steve's...and now i'm sick again...what the heck??

things aren't going very well...i'm terrified of my lit class, i haven't been able to find my MICEFA classes...no luck at all...no luck...

i dunno not much is going on...i need to go grocery shopping but it's too late tonite...i guess that's tomorrows job...

the weather has been really lousy

snowy cold yucky slushy

it gets really grimy...cold grime...

"the nastiest sidewalk" heh

chris wants to go get ice cream...i don't really deserve ice cream but i think i will go just so i can say i left the building today...

and then tomorrow i will do some of those things i was supposed to do...

uhm...guess that's it...hopefully ice cream will be ok...

i don't really need it...but maybe it will be ok

after that

man so i went and had a lame lunch...cuz see i was at the cybercafe and then i went towards place d'italie and just kinda randomly picked a place...

what did i have?

croque monsieur (which is basically ham and cheese grilled)
fries (for some reason i eat fries here)
and ok ok ok

i had "white cheese" cuz the thing is you can buy a meal deal where they kinda just give you a bunch of stuff and it's not as expensive as buying everything separate

i didn't really want the cheese but i figured i would try it

it was sorta like...cream cheese...in a bowl...with honey...

sorta

but not quite

it was like plain yogurt only too thick to be yogurt?

in either case it was disgusting...but i think they expected me to keep picking at it because i eventually had to go ASK them for my coffee (also included in the meal)

after that i went to a movie theater and found a ticket for Finding Neverland but had an hour to spare so the dude told me to go shopping instead of "punishing myself" by sitting on the floor playing my gameboy

so i went to the mall

and got a hat at *celio...is it like that? where is the star? i don't remember...man...they have very very nice guy clothes there...and this hat which is super cool...it is olive with a lime band on the very tip of the brim...and there are three patches on the back/side which have a griffin and what one of them says "denim leather est 1976 swdept authentic" and the other says "seventy-six limited" at first i thought the patches were a bit odd but they've grown on me...76 is also a VERY nice number...

uhm so then i rushed back to the theater and saw the movie and i must've just wanted to cry the whole time...it was the best movie i've seen in a really really really longtime...REALLY if you haven't seen it i hope you still can because it is so amazing...johnny depp is great of course but so are the boys o_o omigosh and the lady they had playing peter pan was awesome too (in the play excerpts) soooo good...i may go again depending on what happens next week

so then what i went on a random walk...for about an hour through the latin quarter etc and ended up at the ONE place i didn't want to be...that was depressing...and since i had decided that the next metro stop was the one i would take i HAD to go in and take it

*sigh*

funny how that all works out

more like EVIL

but then i got home and visited some people...still visiting people...

i dunno

guess that's it...

very exciting... 6_6

(not)

mars

well i bought my new metro ticket today

it was really...weird to leave my february one at home...

it's all beat up and bent...

i ran around for a whole month on that thing and so much crazy junk has happened

i'm in a lousy mood

and i need to find lunch...at some point today I'm going to go see Finding Neverland

I'd also like to find a hat so I don't have to think about my hair anymore ever again.

Ever.

Well ok not ever...but still...

I dunno where to go hat shopping.

Last night I stayed up until 4am reading The Da Vinci Code...it's kinda interesting i guess...i dunno...i feel like i'm reading it more out of...obligation than anything

but it's still ok...

uhm...

I haven't done much today so I don't have a whole lot to say I guess...

I listened to Phantom Planet this morning...

...