September 2005 Archives
Socializing here is a double-edged sword. It's fun and relaxing, but it's difficult and stressful because you still have to speak French. Then when you decide to take a break and speak English, it's refreshing but guilt-inducing. That's one reason I love Eurodiscos. You don't have to talk to anyone.
Last night Summer and I were going to check out Les Bacchantes, this bar that's supposed to be fun and cool and that has swing, rock, and traditional French dancing with free lessons and stuff. So we got there, and looked in the little window in the door, and saw people dancing, but it was locked so we knocked on the door. This guy came to the door, looked at us, and closed the window. Um, OK. So we went back home and drank Betsy's Irish cream and formulated a plan B. Betsy is totally the American Southern cardigan-wearing college girl, and she is totally adorable. She keeps the cabinets stocked with Malibu and Irish Cream and stuff. And it's kind of just like, GEEZ, come on, you're in France. But then it's like, mmmm, Irish Cream.
So we met up with some French and Australian students at the tail end of some random concert which was conveniently three minutes from our house, and went with them to a Eurodisco called, I think le Tisonnier. In one room they were playing Dr. Dre. I got to dance to Dr. Dre in France! That is so wrong! In the other room they were playing 80s and 90s pop and stuff. When we arrived they were seriously playing a bunch of third wave ska, which I didn't think still existed in the world, and I actually skanked for the first time since 1996. I can't believe I just admitted that on the internet. (For the uninitiated, skanking is the kind of dancing you do to ska. It's totally ridiculous.) Then they played YMCA and a bunch of neato Frenchy stuff, like this song about le Champs-Elysees. Everyone was singing along. It was the best.
I got home at four and slept till noon. I haven't lived this decadently since I don't even know when, but I've been doing lots of purely voluntary vocabulary work too so it all kind of evens out, I guess. Sundays here are the best. Nearly everything is closed, so you're practically obligated to either go to church or sleep till noon. Then you have to do things like laundry or cleaning the house, and then you have to walk aimlessly around town and marvel at the unbelievably quiet, peaceful streets. Today it is sunny and crisp, a perfect fall day. We've been having my favorite kind of weather, where it's cool enough to be cozy but not uncomfortable. This weekend is J'aime mon patrimoine, where you're supposed to do lots of regional historical type stuff. Summer and I wandered over to the Hotel de ville, or city hall, and checked out the cool stained glass and the mayor's office and stuff. Then we got fries at le Quick.
Later I might study l'Equipe to broaden my vocabulary. I'm learning lots of useful new words, like "emmerder," as in "Je veux courir le Tour encore une fois pour emmerder les français," and "échantillons," as in "échantillons de urine dans lesquelles il y avait de l'EPO." Génial!
Last night I almost died of happiness when a french girl mistook me for a french girl. I think it was because of the scarf. It was at the big ass Eurotrash bash they had for all the newly arrived erasmus students. Erasmus is a program where if you live in the European Union you can spend a semester abroad in any other country in the EU and it costs the same as going to your own university. That is cool. The party was at this bar le Pilori on la place de la liberté around the corner from our apartment. French people don't capitalize anything. We hung out in the square and drank tall boys of 1664 from home and watched freshmen climb the mini statue of liberty replica, then went to this dance club la luna. We were packed in like sardines in lemon and basil with barely enough room to shake it to the tackiest, gayest Euro disco mixes. It was great! When I started feeling like maybe it was time to go I looked at my watch and it was 3h30. What?!
Earlier in the day everyone from the CFLE (Center for French as a foreign language) program went to this village in the country to see this farm where they build houses out of mud. It is kind of like the cob houses in Portland, except they look good and are functional. Like normal houses. It totally blew my mind because I didn't think you could make mud look good. They did really innovative things, like using tools and making flat surfaces. Then we ate a bunch of duck and learned how to do French folk dances, which are basically the same as any other European or Mediterranean country's folk dances. It was hella fun. On the way to the village we passed by a real, live nuclear plant where alot of our energy comes from, and the ruins of a castle from like the fifth century or something.
Today on campus I saw a lowered citroen with a spoiler.
They have this version of Laughing Cow cheese cubes in France called Apericubes. You can get them in different flavor assortments like seafood (salmon, shrimp and crab) and they have drawings of attractive young people at cocktail parties on the wrappers and inside there are trivia questions. The taste, it's one of those things where it's addictively good in kind of a strong, nasty way. Plus they are cute.
En France il existe "apericubes" qui sont fromage parfumé à saumon, crabe et crevettes, par exemple. Je les aime beaucoup et ils sont mignons. C'est vrai qu'on mange beaucoup de fromage en France, je veux rester ici toute ma vie.
We went to the university today for the first time. We took a test to see how badly we murder the language and then went to the cafeterias. There are lots of cafeterias throughout the city - I approve. Being at the big, cool, new, exciting campus I totally got the awesome back-to-school jitters, strong like the first day of junior high or the first day of the first university I attended, SF State, which was foggy and cozy like Poitiers. It's begun to rain here, and even though it's still warm the mood immediately shifted and I began craving knee socks mere hours after coveting the strappy, flat leather sandals you see around. My roommate Carine, who is Swedish, has a pair that has sparkles and straps that wrap around the ankles, and she wears them with old-school running shorts and looks amazing. Anyway, somewhere in some magazine they were saying that fall always feels like new beginnings no matter how old you are, even if you are a grownup and don't go back to school. I think this is especially true in France, where la rentrée, when everyone comes back to the city after summering in the country or at the coast, is a huge cultural tradition, this collective experience where the whole country gets to have back-to-school jitters.
On the bus I took back to Centre Ville we drove through the outlying areas of Poitiers, which are totally different from the ancient downtown. The cobblestones are replaced with strip malls and modern housing complexes and the familiar vague alienation that accompanies them, which was actually comforting because it was a feeling I recognized - like the walking through big parking lots, teenagers waiting for the bus, tired wishing you were home already feeling.
After getting home and devouring all of my groceries from Géant Casino I finally made it out for a run, through Centre Ville and around Parc Blossac. The sun was setting and all the houses were peachy and steamy and it was all ridiculously beautiful. It made me really happy to be here. Then I went home and ate more fromage blanc. Can someone (uhh...Joon?) please explain to me what is fromage blanc and hoz it is different from normal yogurt? All I know is I want to eat it all the time, when I'm not eating fish from a can. Mmm, fish from a can.
Bonjour tout le monde! Je suis en France! J'ai beaucoup écrit mais je ne peut pas le mettre sur la web maintenant... Joon- J'ai vu tout le yaourt au hypermarché - il y en a beaucoup! J'ai une nouvelle chose préférée à manger: le thon à la tomate. Mmmm. Avec du pain. Il y a si beaucoup de sortes de poisson préparé. Le fromage avec des épices (je ne sais pas le mot pour cumin) et délicieux aussi.
J'ai dormi peut-être 4 ou 6 heures dans les deux derniers jours. Ca me fait folle! J'ai attendu toute la dernière nuit pour pouvoir dormir... et rien!
*****
Hi everybody! I'm in France! I wrote a lot but won't be able to upload it till later... no internet connection yet. Joon - I saw the giant yogurt aisle, there really is alot! But it seems like maybe some of what's there is cheating, not really yogurt but something else, but so what: I have a new favorite food - canned tuna with tomato sauce, YUM!There are so many different kinds of delicious canned fish products. Also the cheese with cumin is yummy.
I've slept maybe 4-6 hours over the last two days. GOOD TIMES! I spent all last night waiting to fall asleep and it didn't happen.
I'm living in a fifty thousand year old house. It's kinda cool but the interior decor is so offensively bad that I'm considering moving when I have a chance next month just because of that. And because the shower is in the kitchen. OK, end of patience with differently laid out keyboard, and also I'm racking up the minutes at the internet cafe. Ciao!! p.s. the title, it means thank you nice butt.
This has become my theme song, not primarily because it's appropriate, although that too, but also just because it's such a rad song. It always comes on at ridiculous moments when I'm running, and makes them precious moments. I'll be like, "I love this hill! I'm gonna miss running up this hill!"
Last night I had the obligatory missed flights/personal belongings spread across security checkpoints dream. I'm a little bit nervous about flying, but I'm more scared of leaving my laptop on the plane than something catastrophic happening. Actually, that would be catastrophic. I've been looking forward to today for a long time, but in reality it's probably not going to be that much fun. The sad goodbye, the airport chaos, then being stuck on an airplane for 12 hours. I won't even get there till tomorrow! But whatever, I'm still really excited. I'm going to read like 10 magazines!
