| un peu pompette là |
[Jan. 15th, 2007|10:04 pm] |
today i got up early for my english>french translation test. antoine was nice enough to give me and mady and helène a ride. the test was okay even though i forgot how to say "shopping" in french (maybe cause the french aren't capitalist pigs, ha ha). i took the bus afterwards directly to the direction departemental de travail et de formation professionelle. they were already supposedly closed for lunch but a nice woman accepted my papers and dismissed me with mysterious (hungry?) haste. i went back to the wait at the bus stop where a guy (from the reunion) came up to me and said hello. i replied hello and we talked about how long the bus would be, what i studied, quebec, and where i worked. WHERE I WORKED. i'm an idiot sometimes but he was asking me for english lessons and i told him if he wanted goddamn english lessons he'd have to pay a grand for three months of them at Wall Street English. then i got on the bus and so did he. there was an uncomfortable silence which i didn't give much a damn about since he was just hitting on me but he got off at the next stop anyway. which makes him a bit creepy but at least not delusional. i went home and ate leftover 3-for-1 domino's pizza. i said hi to gilles at the welcome with my pick-me-upper café. bruno was there too and i thanked him for the article on his website which taught me about 40 new vocabulary words (i now know how to say "liquid manure" in french, among other interesting things).
then i went to the gym and took my anglais commercial test. at the end, as i was handing in my paper, one of the people administrating the test kept trying to say my name. "ah-me... a-my.." "AMY," i said. "oh, that must be foreign," he remarked. "yeah, it's american," i mumbled. then as i was walking away i heard him say "well that explains a lot."
i still don't know what he was referring to. maybe i'll ask him tomorrow as i'm slapping his shiny bald head.
i went to the welcome again right after the test. i had a desperados, then a miller, then another miller as i was waiting for lei. lei is chinese, one badass chinese kid who i love (he tells good stories and speaks real good french). gilles got off work and joined us at the bar. we were supposed to play pool with stéphane but by the time he got there we were all a bit too tipsy. gilled wrote me a sweet message on the back of my coaster (it was really nice even though he referred to my eyes as being blue instead of green) and lei taught be how to say "i'm ugly but i'm very tender" in chinese.
such a lovely day in my francophone world. |
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| Nice: the most disastrous vacation ever comes back to haunt me one last time |
[Nov. 26th, 2006|12:02 am] |
So not long ago I received une convocation to go to the Angers police station. There were no details, it just said I had a rendez-vous on a certain day and that I had better show up.
Since my residence card expired on November 14th, images flitted through my head of them arresting me and throwing me on the first plane out of France. But I knew it was more likely that it had something to do with the girl who stole my purse this summer (we caught her and she got arrested). But when I called the police station to ask what it was all about, the lady told me just that it had something to do with a stolen cell phone in Nice. I did indeed have my cell phone stolen when I went to Nice in March 2005, but I was shocked that the police had gotten word of it since I never reported it stolen. I had figured it would be pointless to do so, and I barely spoke French at the time so I just didn't bother with it.
Yeah, turns out that was a mistake.
When I showed up for my rendez-vous, I was kind of surprised at how coldly they were treating me. After all, they were the ones who had asked me to come. Why were they acting like I was the criminal?
The lady at the desk told me to go to office 140. I went, and there was an investigator type waiting for me in his office. I sat down and he started firing questions at me.
When did I get to France? Um, February 2005.
When did I go to Nice? March 2005.
Why? To meet a lady who needed an au pair.
Had I been back since? No...
Who was I with? Weston.
Where is Weston? He went back to the States.
What race is he? Sorry?
Is he white? Yeah...
What did he look like? Uh, brown hair..
You said he was white, right? Yeah.
As in, caucasian? Right.
I was very bewildered at this point, and the man kept avoiding explaining why he was interrogating me like this, but I finally figured out why I was there.
The French police thought *I* had stolen a cell phone while I was in Nice.
Me: "Wait a minute, so *I'm* the one who stole a cell phone?"
Him: "Oh, did you steal a cell phone?"
Me: "What? I mean, no. Of course not. Someone stole MY cell phone."
Him: "Well, we found your SIM card in a stolen cell phone. We've been looking for you for over a year."
Me: ...
The address they had on file for me was Weston's, which I had used only once: when I bought the phone when I first got to Paris over a year and a half ago. Apparently the Nice police had sent the dossier to Paris, who had sent it back to Angers, a process that took over a year. Great detective work, French cops! You could have just googled me, it would have saved you a lot of time.
Anyway, after I had explained myself to his satisfaction, he made me sign my statement and sent me on my way without the slightest thank you or apology for having scared the wits out of me. And apparently the matter is settled.
So yes, that is what we call a big misunderstanding, and a big waste of time on the part of la Police Française. Better luck next time Frenchies! |
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| things i don't like about france |
[Jun. 21st, 2006|05:43 pm] |
Today I visited what must have been my 20th employment agency. As the lady was looking over my resume, she asked me if I had ever worked in France. No, I replied. She then informs me that one's first job in France cannot be had through an employment agency.
Big thanks to the two dozen other people who could have let me know a little sooner.
Grrr. |
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| woah. |
[Apr. 20th, 2006|12:40 pm] |
i never post quizzes. but damn if this one didn't find me right out.
| You Have a Choleric Temperament | 
You are a person of great enthusiasm - easily excited by many things.
Unsatisfied by the ordinary, you are reaching for an epic, extraordinary life.
You want the best. The best life. The best love. The best reputation.
You posses a sharp and keen intellect. Your mind is your primary weapon.
Strong willed, nothing can keep you down. Your energy can break down any wall.
You're an instantly passionate person - and this passion gives you an intoxicating power over others.
At your worst, you are a narcissist. Full of yourself and even proud of your faults.
Stubborn and opinionated, you know what you think is right. End of discussion.
A bit of a misanthrope, you often see others as weak, ignorant, and inferior. |
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| goooooooooooogle. |
[Mar. 11th, 2006|06:31 pm] |
I just applied for this kinda job at Google. I fit the job description perfectly (as bolded for your reading ease). I just hope the job doesn't suck. I have a feeling it has something to do with ads.
Here's the letter I sent with my resume.
*I took out the "as hell" from my signature ( "Do you Yahoo!? 'Cause I sure as hell don't" ) because it is, although terribly witty, not all that professional.
I got an auto reply:
I hope I get the job, and I hope it doesn't suck! |
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| hmph. |
[Mar. 8th, 2006|05:58 pm] |
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this guy named Jesus Gutierrez just added me on facebook. He was half of the "T.S. and Jesse" that terrorized my friend Suejin and me all through elementary school. one time he stole suejin's shoe and then I got in trouble for kicking him under the bus seat. i had to go to the principal's office which of course made me cry. ohh, the injustice. And now he wants to be my friend! the nerve!! |
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| y a des questions que je me pose... |
[Mar. 1st, 2006|11:36 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  pleased | ] |
the frenchies showed absolutely no sign that yesterday was mardi gras.
perhaps the craziest most badass circus i've ever seen was on France 3 last night.
I found out I passed the DALF c1 which means I can go to school with the real live french kids. which is good because i'm definitely sick of taking classes with foreigners. the teachers stop every few minutes to write a word on the board. they also stop frequently to ask questions to make sure everyone understands, like we're little kids or something.
I also found out I got the highest score on the CIDEF placement test in the whole school!!!
This is especially amazing because everyone at CIDEF has been studying French for longer than I have... and it just makes me want to go to IPLV even more. I'd study translation French/English/Spanish, and in a couple years I'd be trilingual. I really really really really want to do it but I have no idea how I would pay for it. I've looked everywhere for scholarships, etc, but so far I haven't had any luck.
if i don't find a way, I'll have to go back to KU and finish my degree in Anthropology.
:(
i love anthropology but damn, i love language even more. and i'm damn good at it too.
antoine and i found a totally sweet apartment. C'est un truc de luxe! it's downtown, on the 5th floor (no elevator), has 4 bigass windows that you can step out of onto the balcony (which wraps around the length of the apartment), it has an amazing view of the cathedral, the tower, and you can see straight down four or five streets.
all of these reasons to be happy but i'm so torn. torn between what i want to do and what i'll be able to pay for. i can't even get oriented time-wise because i don't know if this is the end of my time in france or if it's just the beginning.
i really hope it's just the beginning. i don't want to have to leave at the end of this semester. Surtout Tonio... ca serait trop dur, putain...</>
someone help :'( |
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| oh! yeah! i wanna riot! |
[Nov. 12th, 2005|08:08 pm] |
[note: this entry was written in protest to a certain someone's list of people who need to update more, from which i was excluded:
In other news, I got an apartment! It's in Bouffay, which is like, the sweetest quarter in Nantes. Gregorio, Hector, and Hadia came to visit last night. They snuck onto the train without paying and then ran from the controller when he came to check tickets (they are crazy because you get in real big trouble if you get caught). notable quote:
"If he knocked on the door I was gonna be like PPPFFFTHHHPFTTT!" -Hadia, who hid in the bathroom
we drank a bottle of wine and went to ikea (it was like, too cool for words) where i bought a pillow, blanket, lamp, and plant. i love hanging out with them because it's a melange of french, english and spanish so we always attract a lot of french attention. we ate chinese and managed to miss the last train back to angers even though we skipped dessert and paid 27 euros for the damned taxi. we then begrudgingly went to a latino bar where french people pretended to dance. my drink was crunchy and i was paranoid someone had spiked it or something, but all was good. i hung out with Ely and Glenn for a while and then passed out.
it's hard to stay in nantes overnight. my apartment doesn't feel like home yet. and my frenchman isn't there. :'( i went to the little grocery store nearby for the _second_ time, and the lady working there asked me if i was new to the quarter(!) so i felt all special and welcomed. i'm going to have my very own quarter! the grocer, the boulanger, the tabac will all know me. i guess that means i have to shower.
it's about to be saturday night and i need to find something to do.
P.S. for those of you who are wondering about the riots: IT'S A WAR ZONE OUT THERE. i personally burned 12 cars just last night, and only cuz i ran out of petrol.
p.p.s uh yeah jk its cool |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 13th, 2005|09:15 am] |
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8:30 am, and if i want a baguette, all i have to do is stumble across the street, go into his shop which is lit so warmly, and the boulanger knows exactly what i want. i love this country and i am going back to bed |
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| I GOT MY FIRST STITCHES!! |
[Sep. 12th, 2005|02:57 pm] |
The last three days Angers has been throwing a big festival, Les Accroches-Coeurs. Music and spectacles and all the streets are blocked and packed with people. Last night I was with Hadia at the Falstaff dancing and talking to some new kids. We decided to go to Gregorio's to continue the fête and on the way i was partaking in a favorite pastime of mine, connerie, when suddenly a garbage bag full of broken glass viciously attacked my foot.
I started bleeding immediately. I didn't realize how bad it was until we got to Gregorio's about a minute later and I put my foot up in the sink. My sandal was covered in blood and rinsing the wound made the blood really look like it was gushing and everyone was really grossed out. I was standing there with my foot in Gregorio's kitchen sink staring, fascinated, at my bleeding foot while everyone else panicked (I think I was in a bit of shock). Hadia called Antoine who showed up in like a minute flat (sans ambulance, fortunately). It was probably the nicest moment I've had so far this time in France - I was laying on some chairs with my foot up in the sink while Antoine bandaged my foot ever so lovingly. Antoine and Gregorio were going on in french which i made no effort to understand but i kept hearing the word 'profonde' over and over. Then Antoine said we were going to the hospital.
At the hospital this stupid medical student proceeded to stick needles all up in my toes, which hurt like the bloody fricken dickens. It was the second worst pain I've ever felt in my life (the other time also involved needles in my toes). She had to stick me like 3 times. I was bawling my eyes out at this point and then she made Antoine leave. What a jerk, right? Then she gave me eight stitches. I COULD FEEL HER sticking the needles through my skin.
So now the two little toes on my right foot are all sewn up like Frankenstein and look quite ugly. Hopefully I will get pictures before I get the stitches taken out. Does anyone know if they give you local anasthetic to take stitches out? Please god, I hope not. Ohh, how I hate pain.
P.S. Please send all monetary get-well donations via paypal. :D |
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| bon je suis là! |
[Sep. 6th, 2005|11:42 pm] |
Well, you were wonderful. I only regret that we didn't have more time together. perhaps in another life, it could have been different. you were the best thing to happen to me all summer, and our brief fling just wasn't enough.
you were the best motorcycle ever =/
anyway, i'm back in france. i have a lot of things to do and i am extremely stressed, mostly because of money problems. it's taking a lot longer to get my loans than i expected and i'm hurting for cash more now than i ever have in my life. but the people i have in angers make it seem less disastrous. i'm trying to convince my dad to cosign a $10,000 loan. he doesn't want to because he thinks i won't pay it back and he'll be responsible, which is ridiculous. i told him if i don't pay it back, he can use my life insurance money because me dying is the only way that would happen.
i think this is unreasonable for several reasons. first of all, i have shown myself to be incredibly credit-worthy. i made $25,000 last year. how many 21 year olds who are also schooling full-time work that much? tout ça en buvant comme un poisson. and my credit rating is in the 800s or 900s which i'm pretty sure is quite good for someone my age. and secondly, does he think i would treat him like this when he retires and needs someone to help him? is that the way family is supposed to be?
anyway, i don't know. that's what is really stressing me out right now. also i have to find an apartment, get a residence card, get a bank account and a phone, pay my tuition, and a pile of other things. but all that is sort of fun and challenging because i know i can do it, even if it is a huge hassle. france makes you jump through 23487 loops to do anything.
pourtant, je l'aime. |
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| help, i'm about to be homeless |
[Aug. 11th, 2005|05:36 pm] |
(sorry to anyone on the lawrence_ks feed who has to see this twice)
Does anyone in Lawrence have an extra room to rent from August 14 until about September 2? My sublease is about to run out and I really need a place to stay in town. I'll pay rent, do dishes, babysit, walk your dog, teach you French, mow your lawn, do your homework, bring you beers, and/or simply bless you with my presence.
oh yeah, also, if anyone has a laptop or camera laying around that they want to sell, holla back. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 8th, 2005|01:59 am] |
i drank a beer with mike and erin at quinton's in the prep district. it was kind of boring. i was so bored that i started talking to a guy sitting alone at the table next to us. he was wearing an army reserves shirt and a lanyard with a rolled up tape measure on the end (he says it's a personal joke because the reserves are always measuring him to make sure he's within the weight limits). he's going to iraq. he joined the reserves because it was the only branch of the military that would take him. he was in the military overseas 14 years ago and is joining again because he can't hold a job. he said he's had 20 jobs in the last 10 years. man bad at life, finally gives up and joins the reserves. i would say that's a good candidate for one of tommy's saddest things.
then we left and the bartender chased us and said I couldn't take my water outside. I said but it's just water. he said it's a bitch, he knows. i shoved my drink into his hand and walked off thirstily. I actually heard him dump it out on the ground behind me. thanks cock. SCREW YOU, QUINTON'S.
and yet, i would still consider this day awesome for no reason except i talked for hours to one of my favorite people on earth. only 26 days and counting. and i finished reading my third book in french the other day. i can actually read in a foreign language! who cares if the books i read are for 8-12 year olds? judy blume rocks no matter how old you are.
i'm thinking about going out to ride my motorcycle while there's no one on the street. but i have to get up in 5 hours so i guess i should go to bed instead. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 7th, 2005|07:22 pm] |
<< Selon une étude de l'université catholique de l'ouest, les français qui habitent 64 rue bressigny à Angers tombent amoureux d'une américaine habitant au Kansas qui va au falstaff ... >> |
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| i don't know why i thought of this right now |
[Aug. 6th, 2005|10:11 pm] |
a few semesters back there was this guy named steve in my latin class. i thought he seemed cool and interesting. then one day after class, i was leaving wescoe where there were a whole bunch of people gathered around listening to that psycho guy who comes to preach on wescoe beach sometimes. and then i realized that the guy was actually in an argument. or rather, Steve was just screaming at this guy at the top of his lungs, and i mean he was REALLY going off, shouting all the most awesome terrible things. i wish i could remember specifics. it was just about how ignorant, pointless, and irritating it is for him to street preach at all, especially on wescoe beach. and the guy would kind of hesitate, and attempt to respond, and steve would start to stomp off through the crowd and the guy would attempt to pull himself together, saying something like, "and that's exactly the kind of young man who needs to hear these words, that's the kind of young man you need to be witnessing to" and Steve would turn right around and come back and scream at him some more.
it was one of the best things i've ever seen. steve earned the permanent title of Awesome in my book that day, even if he did turn out to be kind of a pushy kisser. |
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| "Quick! Defenestrate him!" |
[Aug. 1st, 2005|12:39 am] |
i'd like to talk about the biggest problem in my life right now. you see, there's a small deck that i share with the other guy who lives on the third floor of my house. there's a lawn chair out there. i oftentimes lay on the lawnchair to get a tan. The problem is, the chair doesn't lay back all the way so I can't lay on my belly. this means that the entire front of my body is a delicious golden tan but my whole backside resembles the underside of a fish.
WHY DOES LIFE HAVE TO BE SO HARD SOMETIMES.
in other news, i watched y tu mama tambien. it was one of the best movies i've seen in a long time. i LOVED it. does anybody want to go to veracruz? hector lives there.
also, screw Watson for closing at 5. and screw ukrainians who don't call you. screw the FAFSA, region-restricted DVDs, and "administrative fees." and SCREW the atlantic ocean. right in its tender little yeah. |
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| ok, i'm complaining again. so what |
[Jul. 27th, 2005|08:58 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  listless | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Claude Monnet Pres Monica Nogu - Infancia Magica | ] |
You know what I hate about this summer? The fact that I'm looking forward to its end. No summer should ever be subject to that kind of thinking. I can't believe I'm wasting it by working all the live long day. I want to take a road trip and go camping. I want to go to Mexico. I want to kiss a crush and drink wine and dumpster dive and hang out on the roofs downtown. I DO NOT WANT TO GET UP AT 7AFM EVERY GODFORSAKEN DAY.
This nonsense is cramping my style. |
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| *dies* |
[Jul. 26th, 2005|09:13 pm] |
i've never heard russian before. it's damned beautiful.
like woah. |
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