Friday, January 25, 2008

It’s officially been a week since I was shipped off from Chicago and I can’t even believe it. Experience wise I feel like I’ve been here at least a month, it’s out of this world! I had my very first French class today, and I’m feeling better about the language already. My pronunciation was nothing to write home about and I keep reflexively using a Spanish accent but the fact that I’m actually in a class learning the language makes me feel a lot better. The class only has about 10 people in it, which I’m sure will be nice in the long run, but made today’s individual pronunciations pretty intimidating. The professor is v. nice though and makes me feel like I’ll be able to rock it out if I practice a lot. After French, voila! I was done for the day. Hung out in the cave per usual and got a chance to read some of the emails from the fam! I’m glad they’re keeping in communication so well; it’s always nice to have a few newbies in the inbox.

During the cave time, we also continued the incredibly difficult task of planning our travels. Surprisingly we’ve made some important decisions and have a lot of booking to do. I’m not looking forward to the email my parents will send once they see how much traveling will cause our co-signed visa to be swiped. I’m realizing why people say study abroad goes so fast! In an afternoon I booked my entire February, weekend-wise. Care to hear my travel plans? Thought so!

February 1^st-4^th—Carnivale in Venice!

We leave Friday on a 10-hour, overnight bus ride to Venice, where gondolas replace cars and papier-mâché masks come alive! Apparently it’s all kinds of magical and I’m turbo excited to see it in action!

February 9^th-10^th—Coast Trip to Nice and Cannes

This one’s set up through the school. The brochure boasts of the narrow buildings, pastels and the promenade des Anglais in Nice. Cannes is supposed to have a pretty boisterous street life and beautiful waterfronts. Apparently a girl on the trip drank half a bottle of Jose Cuervo on the beach last year and almost got kicked out of the program, oops!

February 16^th—DANA PETERSON ARRIVES IN PARIS! I’m going to take the fast train out to meet her and hopefully Zider and co. as well! We’ll spend Saturday and Sunday exploring the city.

February 18^th-21^st—We’re off to Switzerland! Hopefully staying in Interlock (sp?) and enjoying some Swiss outdoorsy activities.

February 22^nd—Traveling back to Aix to show Dana around

February 23^rd—Day trip to go skiing in the Alps

February 24^th—Alas, Dana goes home L

February 27^th—Going to the ballet! We apparently get to do a meet and greet with a prestigious ballet academy touring the area. Maybe they’ll help me begin my career as a world renown ballet dancer!

We were pretty exhausted after all this figuring, so we decided it was time to picnic. With a gingham blanket, baguettes, brie, and wine we headed to a park to enjoy the beautiful day. It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon. But then comes the time old question, how can something be perfect without jumping pictures? You’re right, it just can’t be. To remedy this situation we all flocked to the nearby fountain and jumped our hearts out, producing some truly phenomenal photos.

From there began a lackluster treasure hunt which led to a much needed rest period. I bummed around and watched arrested while waiting for dinner. A couple hours later Madame T announced that dinner tonight would just be Andrew and I due to her prior engagement. She of course left us a magnificent multi-course meal in her stead. We sat down and ate, having a major H2H which was really nice. After that, I got ready for one of my all time favorite nights out.

WARNING: Drunk addition, read at your own risk

I sit here with red wine on my breath, nutella on my lips and global politics on my mind. Lauren, Emma and I took on our first real Friday night with a casual gusto that left us comfortably directionless. We walked with a purpose to nowhere in particular and just enjoyed each other’s company on our search for a late night grocery store to cater our wine needs. We eventually found one and bought a few bottles of red wine. After a discussion of life goals which included musicals and ballet Lauren returned from the liquor store to tell us of our newest gig; a position in a French film! Apparently, in a month or so we’ll be getting a call back as American actors in a film that will run in New Zealand, France, America and Singapore! Haha, it will probably be a way low budget weirdo thang but seriously, how ridiculous is that? We’re both pretty stoked and I can’t wait to see where this leads. Tell Zac Efron to watch out!

The Global Issue of Scrubs

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Well let’s begin by wishing a happy birthday to Ashley! We got to ring in the big 2-1 at the local student bar, IPN. Since my day yesterday consisted mostly of sitting around with no class, we’ll start with the evening of January 23. At some point I got home and had another hilarious dinner with Matilde and Ahnd-rooh. Well it was basically us sitting with her while she ate that was a riot. She had this huge plate of noodles and was of course being ridiculously goofy whenever Andrew tried to fake steal any of her food. At one point we tricked her into getting out of her seat and Andrew took her place, causing this amazing video to occur. (See bottom of page)

After Matilde headed off to bed we began the real dinner, with Madame e Monsieur T and their son in law. Madame T did it again and served a knockout French meal of some delicious soup, a pork roast with a mushroom sauce and sautéed potatoes. I’m not even that huge on mushrooms, but omg I was piling them on my plate like there was no tomorrow. We ended with two new kinds of cheese and a fully stocked fruit bowl. Dinner ran late, so luckily I already had my outfit planned out for going out that night and I got ready in record time. On my way out I realized I had failed Madame y Monsieur T again by not bringing pictures of the family. Andrew was showing them his family and pets and since I have dad’s old computer, he deleted all the old stuff and left off my pictures so there would be room for all my new stuff. I’ll have Dana bring some pictures and such when she comes to visit…in less than a month!! Flew down the 6 flights of stairs and took the shortcut to the school and eventually to an apartment nearby to pound some wine and mingle with our fellow Wednesday night IPNers.

Met some new friends and jumped out the door to get our beer pong on because it was ‘American night!’ We all loved the advertisements for the night, ‘beer pong and the finest American hip-hop’. We should have realized that when people use the word ‘finest’ to describe hip-hop, they’re probably on a slightly different page. Since we were a little late for the beer pong we just cheered on our fellow IAUers, the die-hard team of Emma and Kathryn who were on a 5 game winning streak. Midnight struck and with it came two things; Ashley’s coming of age and HIP-HOP. Wished our girl a great one and headed to the oh so empty dance floor to get our groove on to “No Diggity”. Mhmm, that was the beginning of hip hop night and we were ALL about it, mainly because there was a pole on a mini platform in the back. I’ll take the liberty of calling myself a connoisseur of poles and let me tell you, this one was pretty good. Appropriate height, nice space around it and thin enough to rock out some sweet moves, but sturdy enough to feel comfortable. The girls and I tore it up for awhile, until Emma and I decided to walk around the bar for awhile until a good song came on. We had gone no further than 2 feet when “No Scrubs” by TLC came on and without a moment of hesitation we ran back to the dance floor. It’s good to know that TLC’s message about scrubs still rings loud and clear worldwide.

Boomsday.

I’m really cool. I write mini book reports.

so....

A Book Report on Boomsday

The true test of a book’s power to engage is to bring it to a foreign country where there are endless new sights to see and tons of opportunities to explore the area. If you find yourself curled up in bed reading instead of roaming the streets of Southern France then I think you’ve got a winner on your hands. Boomsday, by Charles Buckley, the author of Thank You For Smoking is another political comedy that excels in the time old presentation of characters you love battling characters you love to hate. As far as my reading experiences go, it’s been the norm for male authors to introduce a male protagonist rather than a female. It’s refreshing to see Buckley’s dedication to the creation of a brainy blonde ‘PR chick’ with a hefty political agenda. His ability to maintain such hilarious and biting dialogue is commendable. The characters are totally eccentric and completely relatable to modern US politicians. It’s as if we as readers get to go behind the scenes of a chaotic election process and see what we all imagine politicians to be like off camera. Buckley made his humor rewarding by consistently connecting situations and creating small ironic twists purely for the enjoyment of the reader who catches the little things. Overall, Boomsday kept me laughing and always ready to dive back in.

Meet my new bestie, Nutella.

POTD.

Monday, January 21, 2008

All I can say is that it’s been an amazing day to be in Aix. The weather was cold, the orientation was long, but the people are remarkable and the fam can’t be beat. I was once again woken up ‘way too early’ aka 8 o’clock to get ready for our first day of actual planned activity; orientation. ‘Showered’, ate a little breakfast and headed to the university! It was a little nerve wracking walking there, not really knowing what to expect, but I suppose that’s always the way it goes. On our way to the university we were intercepted by an employee and told to go to the building on the right. This building was actually a cave from medieval times. I swear I thought I was on set for Phantom of the Opera when I walked down the steps into a stone cavern with a yellowish glow. Andrew went to go sit with some friends and I just sat in the middle, ready to get the orientation over with. The director gave a rather moving speech about how he ‘found himself’ while studying abroad and hoped we could all do the same. Even though he was clearly reading off of a piece of paper, it was clear that what he said was genuine and that he really wanted us to be involved in becoming as introspective as possible. He recommended really driving ourselves into the culture and being as active as we could be. I plan on taking his advice and living it up.

Afterwards, I got to officially say hello to Lauren, a friend from high school and beyond who was actually my inspiration for going on this program. We got a substantial group together and had café in a little square near the university. It was tres French, haha. Actually tres American because we were pretty shaky in our French and all giggling at the adorable waiter we had. Anyways, from there I met some truly hilarious people and started getting a really good vibe from the program as a whole. My original predictions of an hour or two of orientation were completely off and we found out we would be there roughly until five, so that was a major downer. Before we set out on this momentous welcoming process we decided to get some lunch so we wouldn’t pass out somewhere in the middle of a tour. Grabbed some French sandwiches and were good to go. After that we went through some talks on housing, classes, and ‘how to survive at the university’. I’m hoping they’re giving a gung-ho tough introduction to scare the weak into submission…but you never know, we’ll see within the next few weeks. We are apparently not supposed to get intoxicated, but OOPS, I just broke that rule at the pub! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not like belligerent, but if I had to blow, I’d probably be above the level.

After all the orientation hoo ha was done some IAU-ers and I headed to Monaprix, basically the wal-mart of Aix. Went in looking for school supplies and was appalled to learn that the French, at least in Aix, only use graph paper! Either all the lined paper was sold out or they heart
graphing…either way I was not pleased. I got some extra bright, color-coordinated folders to make up for it. From there I tried to take a new way home but got dreadfully mixed up and ended up taking a round about shortcut that kinda worked out. Ran to the internet café shortly after that and finally got to talk to some people on AIM! It was nice that it 10 AM at home rather than like 4:30AM. Headed back to the apt. and Madame T was rushing to the hospital to see her new baby granddaughter! Very cute. Hung around for awhile, finished my book, then Andrew and the fam returned and dinner followed shortly after. At dinner, I had some of the most hilarious moments with Matilde yet. As previously stated, the girl is a riot. My two favorite parts of dinner were when she was attempting to grasp a fork properly and pick up a potato slice but couldn’t do it for about five minutes and then just threw her fork down, grabbed the potato in her fist and crammed it into her mouth. It was completely candid and adorable and I had to sustain my laughter. Second, since I am so poorly versed in French, Andrew, Madame T, and her son in law were in the midst of an intense political conversation and I have no idea what’s going on so I talk to Matilde. We’re finally gaining some understanding in our mutual agreement that ‘chocolate is yummy.’ I of course didn’t know how to say ‘yummy’ in French so I rubbed my belly when she said ‘chocolate’ and we both had a good laugh. The rest of the fam probably thought I was crazy, or handicapped, but it was a good laugh for me.

Lauren and I decided that going out was a must for the night, so at our early lunch we told some people to meet at the large fountain at the center of town. By the end of the day we had spread word to basically all of the group and large numbers of people were expected to be there. I headed towards the area shortly after dinner and the prediction of a big group was completely warranted. It looked like a street gang, except way less tough and way more disoriented. Luckily most of the groups split up and we had some smaller ones head to separate pubs. I basically loved all the girls in our little group so that was a major plus. I also decided to bootleg the old snowball cheesy pick-up lines routine Rachel and I did and use it for the Aix talent show with Lauren and Kathryn. They were all about it. We had some good conversations over a few pints of beer and headed back to our respective homes…AFTER the best moment of life involving nutella-covered waffles. In all honesty that may have to become a new staple in my life because really, it was fucking delicious. They ran out by the time I got there, but I had enough of Lauren’s to swear by it for the rest of my life. GOD it was good. Walked some ladies part of the way home, had some major trouble with the lighting and key situation and finally I’m in bed, ready for more orientation and CLASSES STARTING TOMORROW. Ay yi yi, never a dull moment. I completely love it though. Settled.

Tu e Cucol!!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

I’ve decided to go by Gregory here. I much prefer the way ‘Ghregoree’ sounds to a struggled ‘Greg’. I think it makes it easier for them too…maybe. Regardless, since it’s only the second day, it shouldn’t be that hard to pull.

The day began with a knock on the door at what I assumed was very early and by whom I assumed Madame T. Wrong on both counts. 10:30 AM and Andrew were the correct answers. He was going to check out the internet café and then look for a phone but I was in no position to do the former at that time. I agreed to meet him around noon to look for phones and decided to shower before then. Things work a little differently here and by shower I mean sit in a tub with a handheld showerhead. It went pretty well after I figured out how to get a comfortable water temperature. After that I decided I was up for my first solo walk around Aix. It was another nice day but I was still a little nervous that young French street punks would make fun of my jeans or something. I guess I wouldn’t understand them anyways…but you know the scenarios you think up in your head when you’re unsure about something. I made it 1/3 of the way I’d gone with Madame T the day before and headed home. Baby steps, baby steps. Read some more then had lunch with Madame T and I have to say, I still just love cheese and it’s role in everyday French life.

By then I had definitely missed phone searching with Andrew so I decided to try the internet café myself and get in touch with the states. It was ‘free’ wifi but you’re allotted an hour and supposed to buy a drink. I ordered a ‘café’ got a shot of espresso and was ok with that. As long as I was caffeinated and had facebook I was happy. The further I travel, the longer I feel like I’ve been gone especially when I can’t check facebook every say, 20 mins? I always expect that first log in to have like 30 new notifications, but really I’ve only been gone a day or two. I spose I’ll have to deal with my two notifications. Andrew showed up at the café and internet-ed for a bit with me. Headed back shortly after that and had some down time until Madame T got up from her nap to take us exploring via her car. She ended up taking us to the mountains that Cézanne was famous for painting. Even though it was cloudy and you could only see the base of the mountains well, the way they lit up in the sunset made it clear why they became so well known.

One thing I absolutely love about France is the trees. It all began last winter break in Paris when we were in the gardens of Versailles and I took one of my favorite pictures ever…of French trees. I don’t know if it’s just winter or what but there is a certain type that has such white bark, I think Madame T called them platana something. Regardless, they are often planted in such straight lines which makes perfect tree lined lanes. I can’t wait until summer when they actually have leaves to canopy over the streets. Simple pleasures I guess. We walked around for a bit and I definitely want to go back around that area and hike around. Somehow I have no class on Wednesday so I plan on doing a lot of exploring. I’m excited to see if they have anywhere where you can rent a bike for a day or something like that. If so I am for sure renting one, packing a lunch and exploring…hopefully making it back.

The next big event was the arrival of the T’s daughter and son in law, who had their two daughters in tow. The parents were nice and thankfully understanding of my language incompetence and the daughters were adorable. Matilde was the oldest and I don’t think I can spell the second, Omarenu or something? Matilde was running around yelling ‘Cucol’ which translates to ‘silly’ or ‘mischievous’ It reminded me completely of arrested development. One of my favorite parts of that show is how each family member has a different sound for a chicken. Whenever someone calls Michael a chicken they accompany it with some obscure sound and I think Gob’s is very similar to ‘CUCOL, CUCOL!’ I loved it. Matilde was a riot and was just in the beginning of learning English, so she knew words like ‘crocodile’, ‘elephant’, and ‘dog’. We played with her, talked with the dad and drank some licorice tasting alcohol that is supposedly famous in Marseille. I feel like mom would have liked it more than I did, but it wasn’t bad. Apparently you’re supposed to add water to it, but I thought he was just pouring a small sample so he poured the straight alcohol and I went to drink it and everyone was like ‘NO!!!’ Oops! I was gonna take it U of I style. Probably would have either killed me or brought me back to New Years Eve in Berlin (aka near death via straight booze) We ate dinner, played with Matilde some more and at the end of the night we got a ‘Night Americans!’ from her, which was amazing. Early start tomorrow, ahh! orientation for school. I’m excited to be starting but still semi nervous. More so about what to wear than the actual school part but you know how it goes…first day of school jitters. I can’t wait to get the excursion schedule and find out when I can go where! There will be much to report tomorrow I’m sure, so I think I’m gonna read some more and maybe watch a bit of Ryan’s slideshow and hopefully not get too homesick.

An American boi in France pt. 2

Back in the airport we were greeted by an incredibly cheerful IAU worker who I can only describe as being like an older more enthused version of the lady who ran Madeline’s orphanage in those stories…Madame Clevelle? Haha, I’m not sure entirely why she reminded me of her, probably because I’d find out that a whole lot in France reminded me of those silly little (wonderful) books. We got our luggage without too many hitches and rounded up our substantial group to catch the bus to Aix! Did a little mini meet and greet while we waited for the bus and eventually got out there. It was gorgeous and pretty green for being winter, definitely did not make me miss the freezing cold of Chicago. However, the weather in Chicago did come in handy because with the complete language barrier all I had to do when someone asked me where I was from was say ‘Chicago’ and hold myself and pretend to shutter. 9/10 times people got it right away and chuckled, most likely due to my heinously over exaggerated gestures.

After a quick bus ride we pulled up to a median and saw hordes of adults, from middle aged to older couples—our new parents. It was the most adorable sight to see them all holding up printed off signs of our names and bumbling around excitedly waiting for their new American houseguests to step down from the huge bus with tinted windows. It was finally my turn and I was led to an adorable woman, probably about my mom’s age wearing cropped white riding pants, black boots and an artfully placed black waist belt. On the up side, she was trendy and smiley, on the down side she spoke no English and I no French. My new Madame Clevelle was very worried about this arrangement for the entire 30 second walk to the car then she shooed me in and said ‘Au revoir, see you Monday’. The car ride was pretty but a little bit uncomfortably silent. She tried to point and explain some things in French but in my dazed and completely unfrench state all I could muster up was a weak ‘oui’ every now and then.

We drove from open highways to cramped parkways to ‘omg are we going to make it through’ alleys. In one of these alleys was my new home. We got my bags out of the car and walked up to a huge very regal door adorned with gold plating and accents. We entered into a humongous checker floored, entryway. After three flights of stairs with my enormous bag we reached the apartment and it was probably the most exciting moment of the trip thus far. She opened the door and

OMG.

I’m living in a wing of Marie Antoinette’s palace.

I was in awe as we toured the place. We walked down the long corridor that was comparably sized to a floor on a motel, with doors on either side. On the left we passed the two bedrooms for Andrew and I, the toilet, her son’s room, the bathroom, a storage room and the kitchen. Then on the right there was a storage room, her room (amazing), a large dining room, and the salon. It was absolutely gorgeous. Since the weather was beautiful, the windows were all open airing out the house and making the curtains billow. The rooms had large mirrors with gold designs elaborately swirling around them, and had a darker reflection making me feel less like a ghost from central Illinois. Large still life paintings hung above display boxes of French soldiers, eliciting the feeling of being in an art museum. Large, lavish couches and loveseats were artfully spaced throughout the salon, complimenting each other with their summery shades of green, yellow and gold. My absolute favorite part was the view from the entryway. The sun was shining through the large open windows, casting a glow on a small wooden desk that sat in front of one of the five (that I’ve seen so far) fireplaces in the apartment. On top of the desk sat some paperwork, a few books, and no joke, a feather quill. The combination of the feather quill and the antique gold mantle above the fireplace made me want to cry.

Madame T (as I’ve decided to call her here) then had to move the car, so I had the overwhelming job of picking a room. I kept telling myself that it was not a vacation and that I’d have to live with this decision for four months. Before she left, I think she saw me running back and forth from the rooms at least 80 times…she must think I’m absolutely insane. The first room was smaller, but well lit by the windows and glowing from the simple bright furniture. I liked the fact that it was well lit, but it had a smaller desk and no mirror (the biggest factor). The other room was much more royal, possibly a study before it turned into a guest room. There was a large bookcase with antique looking books bearing gold covers. It was darker than the other room, with a large wooden desk and a much more open floor. There was a grandiose mirror and the bed was in the corner. I no joke, continued to run back and forth, nearly hyperventilating at one point, until finally I came to a decision. The small bright room was going to be my home for the next four months. Settled. In the end it came down to color scheme. I decided if I ever got terribly homesick or upset about something, I’d much rather come back to a sunny bedspread than a cavernous though regal room. The mirror was a big factor but I guess it made sense to choose sanity over vanity. (LoLz) Plus I found out if I leaned over the glass coffee table at a certain angle I could catch a decent reflection.

After I had a substantial enough freak out about the apartment, I unpacked all my things and got the room as cozy as I could, noting I'd packed minimally other than clothes. I made a mental note to go print out some pictures somewhere and give the place a little bit of Illinois love. Madame T returned and asked me to join her for lunch via soft-spoken French and universal signals such as spooning air food into her mouth. I followed her to the rustic French kitchen and watched her whip together plates of bread, meat, and various cheese. Thankfully she ate with me so I didn't have to just sit there chewing and smiling with nothing to say. I think I got the message across that I love cheese, I'm sure something along the lines of 'j'adore' fromage!' made her giggle internally, but I think she knew I was trying.

We went on a short walk afterwards and I think I'll be able to fall in love with this area very easily once I start getting at least a foundation for the language. The streets are lined with shops and I've become very familiar with the term 'solde' (sale) Apparently January is a BIG month for liquidating everything, and I have absolutely no problem with that. It was cool to get to walk around everywhere and just take the area in. We went to the university, saw countless fountains, and stopped into an art gallery. Overall a nice way to introduce the country.

Ah, well I have like a second of internet left but still to come is the introduction to my housemate, my first French dinner (with family friends) and learning how to use the tub.

Au revoir!

(I swear I won't use broken French salutations in all my posts, but it's still new to me so I'm gonna embrace it)

** As to not get totally confused, here's the rest of what happened that day, beginning with meeting Andrew (or ‘ahnd-rooh’ as would be pronounced)

Ahnd-rooh arrived in the early evening and with the intense amount of stairs they needed an extra set of hands to grab some of the luggage. I brought a bag up and Madame T went to move the car. Andrew and I went through the normal pleasantries then mused at the incredible apartment. I walked him through what I’d been shown the day before and was wowed even more. From there it was basically do your thang until dinner. So far, all of my down time has consisted of reading ‘Boomsday’, a political comedy about US finances and the social security crisis. It’s funny and interesting and I think I’m going to check out some other books from this author. On our visit to the university yesterday I saw that there was an ‘American library’ so I hope they have fiction because at this rate I’ll be running through books fast.

Shortly after I met Monsieur T and I think the best word to describe him would be ‘jolly.’ He’s very talkative so I am constantly kicking myself for not knowing the language better/at all. The language barrier is definitely smudging my usually pretty decent conversation skills. I hope they don’t think I’m distant or haughty because of my confusion. I think I’ve had two expressions here, one where my brow is wrinkled looking for understanding or two, where I have a smile plastered to my face hoping I was just told a joke. This gives me the perfect foundational drive for learning the language though! Nothing like awkward situations and a desire for conversations in one language (not frenglish) to get you motivated. Shortly after, guests arrived making me even more aware of how little I could speak. Dinner was delicious; Madame T is quite the cook. I felt awful when people would try to ask me things and I’d respond with a strained expression and muffled words. It was nice to see the host parents interacting with their friends though. They definitely seem very laid back and funny, which is always a good thing. By the end of the meal Andrew and I were pretty exhausted so we headed to bed. I attempted to write a little bit more but gave in to my slight headache and comfy bed.

An American boi in France pt. 1

So it’s finally actually happened. After two flights, a sleepy layover and a delayed bus ride here I am in a gorgeous, airy bountifully windowed French apartment. Surprisingly the travel portion turned out to be a breeze, but per usual the frantic pre-flight preparation left me running around like a maniac. My favorite R’s were obviously over until late last night (welcomely) delaying my packing, so by 2 AM after a long convo with the boy I finally began to take things seriously and whip my bag into shape. Little did I know it would end up weighing in at 30 kg…just a litttttle beyond the limit, but we’ll get to that part later.

Once that thing zipped up there was no way anything else was getting done that night so I made a checklist with no less than 30 tasks to complete before noon the next day and set my alarm for a way too soon 8 AM. The next morning the fam, off to their various work places popped into my room with the dual purpose of actually getting me up and saying goodbye. I was bleary eyed and sleep deprived so I was a lot less heartfelt than I would have liked to be. Actually, as a whole I think my goodbyes were almost a cop out. I still feel like this whole thing is just some crazy wild NOT four month vacation and I’ll see everyone within the next few weeks. It will be interesting to see how I do once I actually catch on to the actual longevity of the trip.

After enjoying one last American shower I lazily crammed my other bag full of a bunch of crap I may or may not need and called it a day. By then it was noon and after a few more phone goodbyes I was on my way to the airport. My nervousness peaked when we drove up to the international terminal and I had to hand over my phone to my mom who is for whatever reason the only individual on earth who doesn’t have a cell phone. She basically just waits for one of us kids to go on a long trip overseas where we won’t need it, which recently has given her a phone for many months out of the year. Mom went to park the car and I waited in line to check my bags. The lady at the desk was a little shocked at the weight of my bag and asked if there was any way I could transfer some of that weight to my smaller bag so she didn’t have to charge me an additional fee. So my mom and I step to the side and unzip the beasts that were my suitcases, crawling around on our knees trying to cram, and move and switch all kinds of things. I ended up changing shoes and adding a scarf to my already bulky outfit. The bag lost a little weight and she waved us over, acknowledging our effort and not charging us. After that my nervousness quickly receded and was replaced by my first wave of exhaustion. Pathetic, I know, I’d only been up for like four hours but hey, they were grueling. Of course I messed up and didn’t bring a zip lock bag and had to go back through security to scavenger around O’Hare shops until I found one to save my cologne. When I ran into Ashley, another girl from the trip sitting with her family in the waiting area I realized I was a little early to be getting ready to board, but oh well, security set me back a little bit.

Using travel techniques mastered in Egypt I bought the biggest bottle of water I could find with some gum and took a seat right by the gate. Ashley and Lindsay from the program showed up shortly after and we were getting pretty excited about all of this actually happening. Skimming a US weekly during this waiting period also informed me of some of the most crucial news I’m sure I’ll get for quite some time. ANTM cycle ten (I think) airs in mid-February. Gosh, it’s going to get expensive to fly home every Wednesday and watch it with Patrick.

The plane ride was pretty lackluster. I slept for a good chunk of it and managed to wake up for a dinner that for me just allotted to bread and cheese. I also caught The Nanny Diaries and overall I’m not entirely sure how I felt about it. Actually I am pretty sure. I didn’t really like it. It was way predictable but I guess Scarlet Johansson did a pretty dec job. Anyways, after more airplane seat contortionist napping we arrived in Milan for our layover where shocker, I fell asleep again. Boarded the plane and boy did I pass out. I even missed the snack this time. Thankfully I was coherent enough at the end of the flight to look out the window and see our amazing entrance into France. Mountains and villages and varied shades of farmland making a patchwork pattern from the plane, in short, it was beautiful. Then beautiful got redefined when we stepped off the plane. I was wearing a hoodie and a puffy vest and felt like I could have gone without either. It was incredible. It was like ‘fresh’ had been sucked out of everywhere I’d ever been and power launched at me as I stepped off the plane and I loved it. Brought me back to my old pancake café accidental saying, ‘keep it fresh, keep it fresh.’ (If I had blog footnotes I’d tell the story about how an old man joked about putting ketchup on his pancakes and I didn’t get it, then he said something about it being a joke and to their bewilderment I smiled and said ‘keep it fresh, keep it fresh’)
Ooh la la, I'm in France!!
I haven't had internet yet, so I've been journaling a la microsoft word and I'm now transferring that to this, so I'm gonna try and split it up to not make it too brutally long. Thus ends the journey to France, coming soon..the first day.