Paris&Rouen happenings

Basically Rouen, for me, can be defined as the opposite of this McDonald's...I'll get to that in a bit, though. First, I'd like to share how I spent my weekend of mini-vacances. I headed off to Paris on Thursday afternoon and I randomly was on the same train as my friend heading to Stockholm and we both had no idea! So, instead of spending a boring two hours all by my lonesome, I hung out with her in the bar voiture of the train. Remind me not to do that again unless I randomly decide feeling nauseous and having nowhere to sit equals good times. So, after I tossed my cookies, I quickly met up with our other friend going to Sweden who was already in Paris. Just a quick chat and then they were off to cherche a Starbucks and I was off to metro it to meet up with my friend at La Defense where she works. She ended up working til about 19h30, so I faire'd un tour around the big centre commercial and waited for her. We mange'd at a miammy thai resto vite fait(poulet curry vert!!...basically chicken in the form of fire) and then headed to her apt which is in a nice quartier outside the city. Let me tell you, her apt was awesome, I'm totally jealous...in an old building, but totally modernized inside with wood floors, a built in dressing in her room and a totally redone kitchen with pretty, colorful tiles on the walls. A reasonable price considering it's location and awesomeness(900/mo for 40 m2 on the metro line) and she, of course, had added nice bits of deco and a color scheme of reds, browns, whites and a bit of gray. It totally donne'd me envie to have a nice, new appart of my own....un jour!


K, I need to speed this up considering I said all of that for just half of a day! Friday, my friend ended up having meetings in the afternoon, so she had to work despite her original plans to take the afternoon off. So, I was left to my own devices to wander around the city and headed to the Tuileries to sit and read my book and people watch. Then, I met up with your favorite American podcaster and mine because I contacted her and her partner-in-crime once I found out my friend had to work last minute and she was free. Unfortunately, her Aussie counterpart had to work, so I'll just have to meet up with her the next time I swing by Paris! We ended up going to the Cluny Museum and enjoyed statues with dead shrimp eyes, trying to understand the English translations and failing, the unicorn tapestries and the narwhal tooth. You can hear about the visit here. And I urge you, dear reader, to go look up a narwhal now and tell me if, like me, you had no idea that existed. That will make me feel better about myself. After stealing K-Mac's magic orange glasses, I headed to Starbucks for a Mocha Frappuccino. I took a seat upstairs and thoroughly enjoyed it until this b****, I mean, lovely girl came up to me and promptly asked me if I could y aller because she and her friends were going to be assez nombreux. After punching that girl in the face, I left the 'Bucks and headed back to my friend's apt in order to head to Rouen that night.

Moving on to Rouen, I finally met my friend's fam and a friend of hers who was also staying the weekend. Everyone was really lovely...espec her dad who was a huge deconneur just like yours truly and managed to make an inappropriate joke approximately every 5 minutes. A guy after my own heart! I stayed in my friend's sister's room which happened to be right next to not only a boite de nuit, but also a child that loved to scream bloody murder at 5 in the morning...one on each side, the child was not sleeping in the night club. Well, at least I don't think so anyways. So, that was fun times...or not. After I finally rolled out of bed on Saturday, I then proceeded to eat my face off for the next 24 hours. I'm maybe still full from this weekend. The Frenchies and their courses, I tell ya! We had a huge lunch from two until FIVE PM on Sat then we ate Indian food at 8 that night and then a humungo brunch(I made pancakes!) at noon on Sunday. But back to Rouen...we finally left the house at 5 and walked around the city for a couple hours. First, my friend's mom took us to the top of a hill overlooking the city, then dropped us off downtown. We went in and out of stores along several streets and I guess(?) pretty much covered the city. Which leads me to my thoughts on the city of Rouen. Like I said, it can be basically be defined as the opposite of the McDonald's in the photo above. I found the fact that something as ugly as a McDo was hidden behind such a pretty facade pretty ridiculous. Rouen, on the otherhand, is a bit fugly from afar, but once you get inside the vieille ville, it is actually really pretty. There were a lot of the half-timbered houses(like the one McDo is hidden behind) like we also have in Rennes. At one point, we found ourselves meandering down a fairly narrow street that had such a cozy and inviting-looking salon de the, I would've moved in had they let me.

I am so glad my first impression of an industrial-looking, gray city did not last longer than the second I stepped foot into centreville. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery power, so I didn't get to take a lot of pics(I just bought a battery charger today, actually...good riddance to batteries!) Rouen has the oldest auberge apparently in France...or Western Europe maybe...woulda liked a pic of that. Tant pis! I think that's all I got for now, peepz, so I will bid you adieu. I'm off to feed my cold with some warm tea. Hopefully I'll get my voice back sometime soon too. Ciao!

Out like trout

K, I'm off for a mini-vaca to Paris&Rouen to visit my old Montreal roomie(who is French from Rouen...I know, confuse you more why don't I?) The two of us will probably slip back into l'accent and reminisce about former times of pancakes, pina coladas and poutine. I've never been to Rouen before so I'm excited to get to visit a new place. Yay for mini-vacances!

Sidenote: I am up writing this quite late because I've been awaken by the FB of R#1 which is, franchement, just swell.

Sidenote#2: Remind me to punch her in the face when I get back from vacances.

Sidenote#3: I love the sparkly Tour Eiffel!

Sidenote#4: Remind me to also kick her in the shins.

Sidenote#5: Freqkin azerty!!...whenever I go from my qwerty laptop to any azerty comp and back it always takes me a while to readjust(and bizarrely enough it's true even for my rents' qwerty desktop.)

Sidenote#6: This is my 100th post. Wahoo! Random babble with a splash of sarcasm as usual...I'm so proud.

Vid of the week

I promised a video post and here it is, folks! I've decided to take you on a tour of my appart and bore you to tears all in one go. My skillz even amaze me. Note that I actually say "note" and "actually" approximately 5,000 times. It's a disease. Ok, so that's a blatant lie, but I dunno...I had to keep talking and that's what just came out! And talk I did, wowza! On that note, I will leave you to "enjoy" Leah's Appart Tour 2008.

PS-Here is a link to an interview with Cheaty McCheaterson aka Jodie Foster speaking her excellent French. Bizznatch.

Weekend high(and low)lights

Ok, so I decided to try a different format and see what I think, your opinions being welcome as well of course! So, just to run through this weekend with you as I sit here having just finished some yummy raclette leftovers. PS-Remind me not to eat for the next week. Anyways, this weekend was full of highlights as well as lowlights...let me just run through them for ya...

-Rediscovering Citror and how much I heart it, although is it supposed to feel like your taste buds are being burned off when you get to the end of the glass?

-Spilling said Citror all over the floor AND my computer...some of the keys don't really want to work so much anymore. But, how the heck are you supposed to clean underneath the keyboard on a laptop, praytell?

-Watching the Star Ac finale with a few friends which Quentin won! Wahoo! I know he's overly-dramatic and thinks he's great, but I just think he sings better than good ole Mathieu.

-Not seeing Quentin's zizi which apparently made a brief cameo near the end of the show. Quoi???

-Partaking in an interesting conversation about how French speakers are very competitive about their accents and how when a French person tells you you have a good accent, it's a steady downhill slope from there. Also, sharing the fact that Jodie Foster is my French-speaking(Cheaty McCheaterson) nemesis and hoping to never ever meet someone who has the same language learning experience as me who has sounds 100% fluent all the time.

-Literally running home in order to claim the salon to call a friend at 3 in the morning so that Roomie#1 could go directly to the bedroom and get the bonking over with. Unfortunately, I was lucky enough to hear round two. *gag*

- Finding and buying a second rectangular-shaped US style pillow at LeClerc!!! Is it sad that this one got three exclamation marks?

- Enduring an awkward evening being the only anglo amongst R#1 and THREE couples that have known each other since terminale. You know how it is when people have been friends a while and they start to talk about things and people that you have no idea about? That's always fun. Needless to say, I did little talking and much escaping to my room to proclaim how awkward I was to all my anglo friends online.

-Being happy to start eating finally...at 11 PM! My only options before the eating were to escape to my room or drink...let's just say my wine glass was in my hand at all times up until then.

- Having to listen to all the Frenchies comment on how bizarre the sweet potatoes were.

"But, zees taste like carotte"

"Can I 'ave a normale potato pliz?"

"What hare all zeese leetle hairs on zee patate?"

"It's so sucre!"

Way to be adventurous in your food choices. I mean, I agree that the patates douces are different. But, refresh my drink, when did anyone say they were the same? R#1 thought she'd try something different and all but one of her friends had something positive to say. It makes me think of Thanksgiving and all the flack I got for putting cornflakes atop my pasta and making them try jello. I'm sure there are some cainris out there who think that's weird too, but how about you at least try it before you go on and on and ON about how weird it is? I mean, I think cake au thon is weird, but I try to at least be polite and say "different"(that doesn't always happen), but at the end of the day, I am at least trying these things and not going on and on about how weird they are. Can you tell this got on my nerves? I had been clammed up all night, but I had to speak up when they were carrying on and say "it's not weird, it's just different." Shut it. Seriously.

-Having to sit with the three guys alone who were ALL talking about their impending marriages. Two are set in stone within the next year or so. They're all about the same age as me, give or take a year. Awesome.

- Getting in a fight with a random English guy who was being rude to R#1 who was pretty bourree, but just being nice and trying to speak English with him and his friend. I know they were in a bit of a serious thing, but there's no need to say F*** off to someone straight off the bat. How about at least "can you leave us alone (please)?" I did or didn't call him a wanker. Haha. Remember what I said before about the glass always being in my hand? Umm...yeah.

So, that's my weekend in a nutshell. I did promise you that coming soon was a video post and/or interesting post. Does this satisfy the interesting post thingy? Yeah, not sure. A video is coming soon, though...hang tight!

Happy V-Tines!

Just a quick message to wish you all a very Happy Valentines Day or Joyeuse Saint-Valentin from me. Give a big hug and kiss to someone you love not because of this day but just because. Hope you have a great one!

Random thoughts from today

[Out of the corner of my eye] Why is my cat sitting in the corner staring at me? No wait, that's the house plant!

I really hope Quentin wins Star Ac.

Note to self: you are not, in fact, 16.

[Again out of the corner of my eye] Kitty's sitting there staring again. Nope, stillllll the houseplant!

I miss you, I REALLY miss you and I miss the idea of you.

Kids are cute....when they refrain from speaking.

Aww, how sweet of you, young teenager, to step right in front of that old lady getting on to the bus.

Italy or France for vacances???

Should I stay or should I go?

A compliment from a French person? Quoi???

Must.stop.smiling.at.strangers.

I love living here.

[5 minutes later] Why do I want to stay here again?

I really must think of something creative for the blog...OOPS!

Coming soon: Either a video post and/or an interesting post. Stay tuned!!!

Pancake Thursday, quoi?

Yeah, so I missed Chandeleur on Saturday and then I missed Pancake Tuesday, so I decided I'd make my own little hoLEAHday(get it??) called Pancake Thursday. Yeee-uh! Ok, in reality, I just wanted pancakes and all the shenanigans with Chandeleur and PT just reminded me of it. I had pancakes TWICE(since I made a whole batch) in the same day, but it was worth it! I poured on the yummy (fake) maple syrup that's been casually chilling in my cupboard for eons now and ate those puppies up! Miam freakin miam.

In other news, WW4(WW3 happened a bit back, but I just didn't post about it) has officially come to an end. R#1 came to her senses and said she understood where I was coming from and that she will make an effort to not do the horizontal tango so loudly(ok, so that miiiiiight be a rough translation, but still) and she actually moved her bed so it's not right against my wall. You can insert a big ol' sigh of relief here. Though I complain about all the things I find annoying that the roomdawgs do, I can deal with most of them(as long as I can secretly complain here), but that was just not acceptable. Regardless of our newly signed treaty of Effing, I am glad to have a break from the roomies this weekend. It's always nice to have the apartment to yourself where you can sing loudly and dance around by yourself in your room, I mean, relax in the silence. Plans for this weekend include a football match at the Stade Rennais and a possible American Party take 3. Besides that, I am on the search for the veste/manteau of my reves that I am convinced is out there somewhere waiting to be bought at say...1 euro? Ok, not thaaaaat cheap, but a reasonable price. If not, I gots my oeil on a cute light spring jacket at H&M that's not too cher. Eh oui, things are looking up!

Argh!

Just for fun, I thought I'd compile a list of all the things I've noticed recently that are starting to really get under my skin and drive me up the wall and I thought that those of you that live/have lived with Frenchies could chime in as to whether or not you've found these things as well and add any others I've forgotten. And, btw, I swear I'm not always complaining, just recently! Here she blows:

1.) Crumbs from bread left places, not cleaned up.

2.) Eating off the kitchen table and not a plate.

3.) Meat in the fridge in a bag and not on the bottom shelf so instead the meat water drips down all over YOUR stuff. I hearted that one a lot.

4.) Not running water over grimy dishes to let them soak and make it easier to wash them.

5.) Putting the shower curtain up to dry instead of letting it hang dry.

6.) Leaving things in tin cans in the fridge(haircots verts, for example.)

7.) Leaving things (even with meat!) out for a very, VERY long time.

8.) Keeping people awake until 2 AM (getting) busy getting your jollies. Oh sorry, that one just slipped in there somehow!

9.) Putting used matches back in the matchbox. Why on earth you would do this, I have no idea.

10.) Recycling things that are definitely NOT recyclable.

That's all I can think of right now that might be French-related. There's other stuff as well, but I'm thinking that just has to do with people being not as organized and tidy as I am. I'm a little OCD, I will admit, but I feel like some of this stuff is just common sense. And, I am getting annoyed of lightly suggesting things to Roomie#1 only to have her get defensive and annoyed. As you can guess, I am in major need of a break from the roomdawgs, especially R#1 who is being a freakin a$$munch right about now. Luckily, R#1 is gone this weekend and R#2 might be as well. Perfect timing! Good riddance, I say!!

PS-I'm not sure why this banana is so angry, but I found it funny!

Ca fait rever

I wasn't lying about that video kick, eh? Sorry to be a lame-o, but I'm too tired right now since I was kept awake by someone doing something that I was lucky enough to hear through the uber thin wall at 2 AM(not getting into it here, FB/IM me if you wanna know!)to write much of anything, so I thought at the very least I would not be MIA and instead share some vids I took last spring when I was in Bruges, Belgium. I loved it there and I would seriously go back in a heartbeat if I could and since it was the only city I went to in Belgium, I wouldn't mind exploring other places too. But, that isn't in the game plan, so I can only dream about it for now!