Tour de France

On Sunday Kate, Seven, Drew and I went up to the Champs-Elysées to see the last stage of the Tour de France. Kate and Drew showed up early and scored us a nice spot while I slept in a bit. I need my beauty sleep. When I got up there I found them sitting on the cement playing Gin Rummy or something like that. (Right?) Then I thought I would be clever and teach them this awesome game I used to play with my dad, turns out I forgot all the rules and they ended up teaching it back to me. Embarassing. Sometimes I pretend to know things that I don't.

Pretty soon Seven showed up. We stood around for about 2 hours waiting for the fun to begin! It was pretty hot and hard standing crammed between so many people for such a span of time. I walked up the street a bit and got ice cream, found an ATM that probably charged me 50% for the withdrawel and bought THE TOUR DE FRANCE OFFICIAL KIT!

I won't reveal what is inside tthe Official Kit because I'm going to give it to my little brothers as a present. Ok fine, inside the bag there is a t-shirt, a hat, and a little teddy bear keychain that's pretty sweet. (Too cute.) And maybe some little stickers or something, I forgot.

Still waiting. The sponsers had cute little floats that the drove around before the bikes came. There's a carrefour van. Just so everyone knows, Carrefour is the grocery store that Lani and Lauren go to in Belgium. Every time they came to Paris they let me know that they have to same grocery store and they saw an ad here for it. Pretty cool guys.


FINALLY the cyclists came. It was very, very cool to see in real life. Critical mass x 100. There were about 8 different groups that came by and I promise that I took about 10 pictures of each group, as I uploaded them later on my computer to my dismay I found that they all looked exactly the same. Anyway:Pretty great. I was lucky to be able to be here for the big event.

dinner

Tonight Didier & Michel took all of their summer volunteers out to dinner.

Clockwise, starting at bottom left. That would be Uyen, she's from Vietnam. She laughs like a little bird and sometimes about the most bizarre things, but I like her. She speaks a little bit of English which she likes to practice when I'm around. When she calls people on the phone to make appointments her voice goes about one octave higher.
The next one in is Meng Tzu, from Taiwan. She's in her mid 30s but looks like a teenager. She is going to school in Paris, and right now she's writing her dissertation on the globalization of extreme metal. (Yes, that's right, metallica ... music.) Nice girl. She's tiny and wears shiny fruity lipgloss. She's got a really sharp wit and can really go at it with Didier and Elizabeth.
Next is Stephane. He is really tall and big. He's extremely soft spoken and has a very quiet, soothing voice. He has converted to Buddhism and is training to become a Buddhist monk. I'm not quite sure how one goes about doing that, but I will be sure to ask him. He wore his robes to work the other day so we could see.
Behind him is Didier, you can only see the back of his head. Interesting man. He is tall and kind of awkward. He has a lisp and a really goofy, kind of childish sense of humor which is endearing, but at the same time he can be very, very harsh. I won't expand here. Ask me if you want stories.
Behind him is Elizabeth. She plays the viola once a week at the hospital. She has a classic french sense of humor and always has a funny, witty thing to say in response to any event. She also speaks French with the most beautiful accent I have ever heard.
Across the table--that's Michel with the mustache. He wears these bizarre robes and coats to work every day from different Asian countries that he's picked up from his travels. He and Didier are both in charge of the volunteers. Niether of them are very organized but both of them only like things to be their own way. Whenever I have a question Michel says "ask Didier," then I ask Didier and he says "ask Michel." So I'll go back to Michel and he'll get all irritated and go off on how Didier never does anything but write his classical music blog and look up strange, funny websites on his computer all day long.
Beside Michel is Yann. Yann is the nicest. He plays his accordian at the senior center once a week. I love hanging out with him but I loathe going to Debrousse because it just smells so wierd and the people sing along to his music in strange, drawn out screeches and eat their plastic spoons.
Next to Yann is Seven. She is from Germany. I hang out with her every day but she leaves this friday and I am sad.
Next would be Lola, the most charming and beloved volunteer in the office, which also happens to correspond with the fact that she is also the most (and only) American.
And last but certainly not least, we have David there on the end ... the babe. Note the ring on the left hand ... quite unfortunate. And he has a kid which means it wouldn't be easy to get out of. He is an opera singer and goes to the hospital every now and then to sing for the patients. Besides that, he travels around France and Europe doing solo concerts. He has the hands down best voice I have ever heard, and I'm not just saying that because he is also once of the hugest babes I've ever met. He sang an aria from the Magic Flute last time I went to the hospital with him and I was taken aback by how beautiful it is to hear someone sing opera a capella just there right next to you. Quite the experience.

That's it. I'll write another post about the Tour de France and other things hopefully within the next few days. ciao

happy birthday søren!!

EVERYONE: Today is my little brother Søren's birthday. Happy 18th birthday little brother Søren.














Missing you in Paris!! Love from your sister.

Bastille Day

Party Time.


Le quatorze Juillet is quite the holiday here in France. The night before, all of the firefighters in the city host these huge parties--it's tradition. And let me tell you, those things are CRAZY. My friends Leilani, Stephanie and Lauren were in town, and we met up with Seven for one of the parties. People were dancing, alcohol was flowing, children were laughing. There was a cover band playing all of the hits ... with these back up dancers that would change for every song and dance with the cheesiest moves I have ever seen. For "YMCA" one of them came out in this tacky white lingerie with a huge native american headdress with neon feathers. The moves reminded me of the Sims or some sort of video game.
The firemen were all very good looking. They poured champagne out of their firehoses and would do little strip teases on the tables for the ladies--I'm not kidding.

On the 14th I woke up early and went up to the Champs-Elysées for the parade. It was a huge event. It took me about 20 minutes to actually get out of the metro, and an hour to walk up the street, and then crawl through the crowds over to the side of the curb ... I called Kate and when they heard me talking on my cell phone in English everyone pointed and whispered. I flashed my little American smile and got up right to the edge. I rule.

Then, the whole French military marched down the street, Sarkozy leading the way on his little motorized cart.




Planes flew overhead.
I'm talking 15 flyovers... and the parade took 2 hours. It was great. I must say I love a man in uniform.

After this, I went home and had a little rest. Around 7, I realized I should probably head over to the Eiffel Tower to get a good spot for the fireworks. I thought I would be so clever as to rent one of the bikes from the little station outside my apartment and ride it then return it to a station right near the tower, thus avoiding the crowded metro. I had a great ride over there ... got to see all of the street festivities, etc. I soon found that all of the streets were blocked off about a mile around the tower, and tried to park my bike at the nearest station ... full. I went around the whole neighborhood to every free station ... they were all full. (There is about one on every other street.) I finally ended up finding one in Montparnasse. It took me forever on the metro to get to where I wanted to go, then about an hour of walking until I found the grass where my friends Kate, Kyle, Laura, and Dan were sitting. It was about 10:15. I was pretty worn out. The sun had just set and the sky was quite pretty.

The fireworks were incredible. It was the 120th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower and so it was a half hour long. They projected pictures and words on the tower and shot different kinds of fireworks out the side and the top. I've never seen a more entertaining fireworks show. Very well put together.
Here's us afterward.
Pretty tiring day. Kyle and Laura came home with me after and slept at my apartment. Riding bikes home was a better idea ... riding bikes at night in Paris is the best thing in the world. All my friends have now left and I am once again left with my own devices. This weekend should be restful. Seven was telling me about an animal cemetery up in Montmartre, apparently there is a German documentary about it where they follow a cat from Chatelet as it makes its way up to the animal cemetery ... apparently it's the huge hangout for stray cats. Seven wants me to go there with her but there is no way in hell.

A Real Update

I've realized that I haven't really posted a serious update for awhile, and I want to give you guys an idea of what my life is actually like here. All kinds of interesting things are happening.

First of all, a new girl came into the office to work with me. Her name is Seven and she is Turkish, but grew up in Germany. Her family is originally from a city that was the ancient city of Troy. She studies English and French teaching, so speaks both languages incredibly fluently (as well of course fluent German and Turkish since they were her first languages.) She hardly has an accent at all. She shows me all of the clothes that are popular in Germany and teaches me how to say wierd things in German. It's great.

So anyway, our job is to go out every afternoon and visit old people. We talk to them, ask them about their lives, do things for them and be their friend. Then we have to come back to the office and write down as much as we can remember about what they said in little notebooks. Then we report on their condition, if they need anything, etc.

So the other day we visited a woman named Madame Gruau. She used to work in haute couture and lives in a very, VERY nice apartment above all the designer stores in the 1er arrondissement. She was so welcoming to us and so happy to see us. She had us sit down, got us some drinks, asked us how we were. She was very interested in getting to know us as well as telling us about her life. What an interesting woman ... she was a model for awhile, she knew Yves Saint Laurent, earned a very nice amount of money. She was wearing a very classy dress and high heels -- very well for a 95 year old! But she seemed unaffected. She had all of her jewelry stolen a year ago (including her great grandmothers bracelet from before Napoleon) but she told us about it like it wasn't really that big of a deal. She is half Italian and was born in Verona. She moved to Paris with her husband, and when he was of fighting during the war she become very close with his brother names René Gruau. He was a painter and illustrator for Christian Dior for awhile. (Here is a website with his pictures.) She considered him as a brother, and went on and on about how great of a person he is. It was so fascinating to us and we stayed far longer than we usually do. At the end, she told us that she would love for someone to come read to her because she loves all kind of literature. I told her that I study literature, also in particular French literature, and she was delighted. Then she recited parts of Inferno in Italian for us. Then, she wanted me to read parts of it to her from her French copy from the early 1900s. WOW. She saw us out to the elevator and didn't want us to leave. We didn't really want to leave either.

Seven visited a woman yesterday who was part of the French resistance and told her all about her experiences and all the times she was almost caught by the German police. I'm going to go see her with Seven next time. Yesterday I visited a 99 year old woman who told me about how happy she was to see her father when he came home from WWI, and showed her his bayonet and helmet.

It turns out that I can not change my plane ticket like I was planning on doing, and so I have to leave Paris on the 22nd. When I told people at the office they said "QUOI? Mais non, il faut rester!!!" And proceeded to give me all kinds of advice of how to change my ticket. It was overwhelming but they were like little puppydogs jumping all around me and begging me to stay. It made me sad. I really don't know if there's any way I can change my ticket.

I'll start writing real updates from now on. I don't know why I'm not writing all of this great stuff that I'm learning and doing. Also, I apologize for my bad writing. Even though my french isn't improving THAT much, and I absolutely pay no attention to grammar like I should, somehow my English is deteriorating quickly. I've started to use the pronoun "one" far more often and speak in phrases that I would use in French. It's bizarre and embarassing.
More posts soon.

Summer Playlist / etc

Summer's Best:

Also:
Do Sky and Sand It -- Paul Kalkbrenner vs Nelly Furtado (Mash Up)
Willie Deadwilder -- Cat Power
Evil -- Beads
America -- Simon & Garfunkel

This weekend I rested at home, walked around the Pere Lachaise cemetery with friends Kate and Kyle, then went to the L'Orangerie museum at the Tuileries to see this:

Monet's waterlilies.

Kyle & Kate

The museum was great, lots of great stuff, Picasso Gaugin etc. We watched a movie of Picasso drawing and then we went into a contemporary exhibit where I saw this:

I spent a long time looking at this one ... I love it. Look at the streetlights and the tail lights at the bottom of the painting. I love the sky and also the angle of the powerline meeting the streetlight in the top left corner. It's called "entre chien et loup" by didier paquignon ... an expression that refers to the time in early morning and evening when you can't differentiate between a chien (dog) or a loup (wolf.)

sick

So I've been sick for about the past week and a half. I didn't think it was a big deal but everyone in the office is really worried about it for some reason. They insisted I go see two different doctors. I had a very, very thorough examination today ... (and it cost 31 euro.) I now have to take 6 different kinds of pills every day, and my boss insists that I start taking vitamins. I think I'll just stop being human and become a robot, or a plant.