Well that worked out nicely...

Phew!

2007-04-17T05:23:00.001-05:00

The past month has been a whirlwind of vacation, visitors, traveling, and tourism. In 30 days I have taken 14 trains, stayed in 13 different hotels, and seen 21 different cities (in 3 different countries).

It started with Sumner's visit...

We had quite the adventure, traipsing about France! We spent the first weekend in Paris, seeing the sights and attempting to stay warm and dry despite the rain. On Sunday we left for Nantes and a bit of reality – or as much reality as you can call studying abroad in France! I went to class and took two exams while Sumner slept and entertained himself on the tram, in the library, and at our abroad center. He even ventured out and found lunch for us all on his own one afternoon! He got to meet my host family – quite an experience given they spoke no English to him! But he whipped out his 11^th grade French and managed just fine. It was fun to finally show someone my life here first hand. On Thursday, we were headed back to Paris. This time for a mini-Cornell reunion. There must have been about eight or so of us at least! It was the most bizarre thing, but so fun and such a welcome taste of home. Sumner and I found time to do it all: the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysee, the Concorde, the Bastille (or… what’s left of it!), Jeu de Paume, the Tuilleries Gardens, the Latin Quarter, the Marais, the Notre Dame, the Bateaux Mouches, the Louvre (although we didn’t actually go inside…), the Orsay, the Pompidou (again, not inside… but Sumner did participate – in a hysterical little sidewalk skit out front – as a motorcycle riding, numb-chuck throwing, Japanese lover!), the Sacre Coeur & the Moulin Rouge, Versailles, and Saint-Denis (duh, to see the tombs of all the kings of france, including the box that holds the heart of Louis XIV!). Sumner was a champ with the jet-lag and kept me entertained the whole time with tales of kings and wars and all sorts of fascinating historical tidbits :) Sunday came faster than we could have ever imagined and in the blink of an eye we were at the airport again saying goodbye.

Four days after that (four days of class and re-packing!) I was headed to Paris again, this time to meet up with the Griswold clan. Mom, Dad, and Ben showed up in Paris with a van filled with suitcases (I’ll admit, at least one of them was for me!) and looking like zombies. The next 12 days were filled with adventures and craziness… Paris to Rouen to Honfleur to Caen to Arromanches to Mount St. Michel to St. Malo to Dinan to Nantes to Tours to Villandry to Orleans to Versailles. Phew! There’s so much I could say about those days, but I’ll limit myself to just a few...

The Mallare's Do France – Top Five Griswaldian Moments

#5 – I booked almost every hotel we stayed in… except in Dinan. Dad gets to take all the credit for that one. Our room was at the end of a long narrow alley, surrounded by graffiti covered walls. The room was just large enough for three beds – a full and two twins. The bathroom was hardly big enough for the tub. There was however a lovely vase on top of the 6” TV filled with dusty silk flowers from the dollar store. Oh, and two teeny hanging pictures of ducks. Did I mention the lock-down kitchen? It was in the corner… literally, locked down – almost like a closed vendors stand – with a metal sliding door pulled down over it. Needless to say, if the alley weren’t so sketchy, we would’ve made dad sleep outside in the doghouse.

#4 – We never did quite figure out the toilets. There was the one that spun around after you flushed (mom was very frighted by this) and also the one that sounded like a large barking dog when you flushed (dad said something about flushing upwards…?). But by far the best was the toilet in St. Malo. You had to pay to use it – 30 cents. We tried the first door but it took our money without letting us in. So, we tried the next. Mom and I went in together in an attempt to save money (as if dad’s hotel wasn’t enough…) and just as I went to sit down, the toilet seat went down. Almost as if it were possessed. Honestly, I hadn’t even noticed it was up in the first place! So mom and I finish up but can’t for the life of us figure out how to flush. Whatever, we said. We go to the door and let dad in (that’s 30 more cents saved, you know). And no sooner does the door click shut when we hear the loudest sound of gushing water followed by the sound of Dad screaming. Mom and I frantically tried to open the door, but with no money, we were helpless. Personally, I figured dad had tried to flush the toilet by unscrewing some valve and now the bathroom was flooding! After a few seconds dad comes to the door. His look says it all. As do his soaking wet pant legs. Turns out it was an automatic cleaning bathroom. Dad described it as: water gushing out of the walls.

#3 – The entire driving experience was quite the… adventure. First of all, we couldn’t go anywhere without being noticed because we were sporting a huge diesel minivan that towered over all of the teeny European cars. Secondly, we’re still not quite sure what half of the road signs mean! The day we went to get the car we walked into the rental office only to be told that dad needed to have his passport. I tried my hardest to explain to the man that we could bring it back to him after he gave us the car, but he wasn’t falling for it. So dad and I went on a 90 minute trek – walking to the metro, waiting for the metro, on the metro, switching metros, on the metro again, walking to the hotel, finding the passport… and then back again. When we finally got the car it was filled with dirt and trash and peanut shells (or were they pistachio?). I asked the man if we could vacuum it out but he told me it was too much trouble to get the vacuum out. Just go before we can’t anymore, I told dad. We spent over an hour going the less than 5 miles back to the hotel. Who knows how many times we circled the same roads looking for one that wasn’t one way in the wrong direction! We finally got there, loaded up the car and headed for anywhere but here. Unfortunately, within a few minutes we found ourselves in the middle of a “pieton”: pedestrian only zone. I have no idea how we got in there and am still amazed at how adeptly dad reversed his way all the way out. I could go on, but needless to say, I’m happy to be back to public transportation!

#2 – As soon as we got out of Paris, we had to stop to fill up on gas. Man oh man. Having never been to a French gas station, I wasn’t much help. Dad seemed to handle it just fine, or so we thought. But then, as we’re driving down the road he asks me what the word for diesel is in French. We're still not quite sure what he put in back there… And then, a few miles further down the road, Dad gasps.

Oh no, he says

What?!

I never paid.

You never paid?

I never paid for the gas.

You never paid for the gas!?!

No, I never paid for the gas.

While everyone watched out the back window for the cops that we were convinced would be behind us in any minute, I found the number for the gas station of the receipt for my water bottle and called them up. In French, I tried to explain that we were the people who had just gotten gas at pump 3 but forgot to pay. I asked if I could give him a credit card number over the phone. He said no, it was better if I just came back. I said, sorry sir, but there’s no way we can do that… we barely found our way out of there and there’s no way we can get back! He said, ok. I said ok. And then we hung up! Dad, of course, spent the next few days worrying over his transgression and having nightmares about being arrested at customs on his way home. Luckily he made it home just fine and there’s been no word on the stolen diesel (or was it unleaded?!).

#1 – The number one griswaldian moment… Friday morning. We were getting ready to head out of Nantes towards Tours. Over half way through the trip, we all had a lot of dirty laundry. So, we found a little “laverie” where we could wash our clothes. We had no detergent and no change… a situation which took an hour or so and several trips to the Tabac to try and get coins to remedy. We finally got the wash going and then transferred it all into one dryer. We were at this point exhausted and more than a little irritable, so we headed around the corner to grab lunch. We came back 45 minutes later to pack everything up and head out of town. I walked in first. I promptly turned around, and emotionlessly reported, “And, it’s all gone.” That’s right. All of it. Gone. Not there. An entire dryer filled to the brim with all of our clothes - gone. Luckily mom and I hadn’t put anything special in... unfortunately Ben and Dad couldn’t have said the same. Everyone had enough left to get by… although I did lose over half of my underwear and am now waiting on mom to send more from home! We still don’t know what exactly happened, except that while we were gone someone took our laundry. I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for Dad’s jacket or ben’s jeans and button downs or my undies… but I haven’t stumbled upon them yet. I’m not really quite sure what I’d even do if I ever did...

So there you have it… I could go on, of course, about the number of times we ordered food and got something other than what we were expected, about how ben ate steak tartare, about when the bird pooped on me, about ben’s nightly staring contests with the unabashed French women in every restaurant, about sharing one hotel room and one bath (that’s bathtub – as in no shower) with four people for eight nights in a row…

Despite it all, I was happy to have my family in France… even if I’m pretty sure they’ll never come back again!

As they were headed for the airport, I was on my way to the south of France. Honest, there’s not much to say except that it was beautiful and relaxing. I was with two good friends from my program, and all three of us were exhausted from traveling. And so, we spent a fair amount of time just lazing about, sitting in cafes, watching movies, sitting by the beach, reading, journaling, chatting, eating, sleeping in, and going to bed early. We saw almost all of the Riviera – Nice, Eze, Monaco, Menton, Ventemiglia (a small Italian town right on the border!), and Antibes. We spent the last weekend wandering around the streets of Aix-en-Provence and finally on Sunday got on a train for home.

And so, I’m back in Nantes now. Five weeks left until I head home. Five weeks to make up for the month of vacation I just took! All of that sleeping and traveling and relaxing is quickly being replaced with lectures, papers, and exams.

Not that I’m complaining or anything :)

Bonjour Paris!

2007-03-05T04:19:00.000-05:00

Last week, during winter break, I visited Paris for the first time. It was quite the experience… five days of sight-seeing and LOTS of walking. I left Nantes at 7am Thursday morning (meaning I woke up before 6 to get ready and get to the train station in time!) and arrived a little after 9. I spent the morning exploring Paris by metro and on foot. My first metro ride was quite the adventure… I realized as soon as we started moving that I was headed in the wrong direction. But at the subsequent stations, nobody got on or off… and I didn’t want to be the only one! (I think the logic was something along the lines of… I don’t know where I am and this might be a bad area?). So three or four stops later, we got to a station that was slightly more crowded and so I dared to get off… just to get back on in the opposite direction :) The metro and I are friends now – albeit I still have to look at the map each time (‘cause there are 14+ lines!). Once I emerged from the underground, I was at the Arc de Triomphe. I spent the morning exploring… le Champs Elysee, le Seine, le Palais des Invalides, le Tour Eiffel. I must’ve walked for 4 hours straight… but there was plenty to see and I didn’t want to waste any time! But by mid-afternoon, I was beat, and so for the first (of many!) time, I found a little café and sat to drink some “chocolat chaud” and read... which often turned into people watching about half way through the page! Later that first day, I met up with my friend Emily (from Cornell… who is in Paris studying for the semester). I stayed with her until Monday night, and we spent the days traipsing about Paris. I don’t think I could possibly explain everything we did, which includes Centre Pompidou, Louvre, Tulleries, Sacre Coeur, Palais de Tokyo, so I’ll suffice with sharing a few fun stories from the trip…

The first night we were there, we met up with some French friends of Emily’s to go out for the night. They ended up taking us to this bar/club/place that was quite the experience: it was in an apartment building, and you never would’ve known it was there from the outside. There was simply a man in a suit at the door and you walked up to him and told him the password and he let you in. You walked up a flight of stairs and into an apartment. It seemed like a small club, you gave your coat at the door, paid admission, and got a ticket. Usually the tickets are for a free drink at the bar… but I went over and handed over mine only to receive a small plate with two potato wedges and a dollop of cream. Um… ok. Turns out the drinks were 14euros. Hah. Anyways, there was one big room, in which there were a handful of tables. Maybe 30 people there, tops. And so, we sat down, and within a few minutes, someone started playing the piano (did I mention there was a grand piano in the room?) and then somebody started singing… well, not just somebody: a black man, with an afro, wearing a black blazer with gigantic yellow and white daisies. And he wasn’t just singing any songs… he was singing American Broadway show tunes. Except, he didn’t really speak English… so he kept mixing up the words! (and way above the chimney stops, that’s where you’ll find me) Again, um… ok. The clientele was an interesting bunch… a lot of well-dressed young adults (but then again, practically everyone is well-dressed in Paris at all times… seriously, don’t even think about going out unless you’ve spent an hour coiffing. Unless you like being glared at!) There was also a man wearing a sheet as a toga. Yeah. It was really quite the experience, this private club... and Emily assured me that this was an exceptionally bizarre night, even for her!

Em & I also got a personal tour of Montmatre (the quartier around the Sacre Coeur) from a French friend of hers… quite the treat! He lives in Montmartre, and so he knew all of the little unknown sites and where to find all of the best views. He took us to the smallest street in Paris. And we saw the witch rock. And the studio that burned down. And the little vineyard right in the middle of town. And the perfect view of the Eiffel tower through two buildings. And the man walking through the wall. And where the other man walked after he got his head cut off. So many things Em & I would’ve never found or even known about on our own!

We ate with Em’s host parents one night… also quite the experience. Her host mom made me laugh – eating hardly nothing and smoking non-stop. Her host dad talked with… err, at… Em & I for about an hour after the meal about politics and globalization and socialism. Oh Parisians :)

So, Paris and I are friends now. I said ‘au revoir’ on Monday afternoon and headed back for Nantes. Never was I happier to be back where I can walk from home to class in 10 minutes, where there are only 3 tram lines – and I almost always can get a seat, where nobody speaks English, and where I have a ‘family’ and friends, and especially where I have my own bed. Paris is fun, but Nantes is home.

I wish I could write more… but these days have becoming more and more jam-packed. This weekend I visited Normandy with IES (I’ll write about this and post pictures later!) and this week starts mid-terms. Ick. I’ve never even written a timed essay in English… and now I have to do it in French! This might be interesting!!

Sumner comes to visit in 10 days.

Ho’mack :)

And my family two weeks after that. And then to the Cote d’Azur for spring break. So… it’s getting crazy, you see! And once everything settles down again, I’ll only have 6 weeks left here. I don’t even know how that’s possible!

Oh, and you should know, as of Thursday, my bathroom/tub/shower was finally in working order again :)

2007-02-20T05:59:00.000-05:00

Today, I finally went to see the doctor. I’ve been sick for a week now… and actually, my trip to the doctor’s office today was probably the most pleasant experience I’ve had since last weekend…

I arrived 5 minutes before my 5pm appointment. He (the doctor, that is) met me at the door, shook my hand, introduced himself, and showed me to the waiting room. I sat there, alone, for no more than 5 minutes (aka, until exactly 5:00) when he returned and showed me to his office. He was wearing a suit and tie. His office was clean if not sparse. He had a computer on his desk. We sat down and, in a mixture of French and English, we talked about my symptoms and their progression. He then showed me into an adjoining room where there was an exam table, sink, and not much else. He washed his hands and then proceeded with a typical examination – he did the whole thing himself, checked everything, even took my blood pressure. His diagnosis – you’re sick, but nothing serious. He prescribed me 3 different medicines, thoroughly explaining each one of them to me, washed his hands, and then we returned to his office again. He printed out two copies of my prescription, which was nice, because for once I could actually read the names of the drugs and how often I was to take them! We proceeded to have a lovely conversation about my host family and my time in France and what I would do when I went back home and about where I live and what my favorite US city is and where he’s visited in the US and he even asked me if I had a favorite building in NYC… his is the Trump Tower. He explained to me how a doctor’s visit works in France… you pay at the time of your visit (“21 million euros” he said, and then laughed and said, no, it’s really only 21… which is only about $28) Later, when I’m back in the states, I give my receipt to the insurance company to be reimbursed. If I were a French citizen, I would get 20 euros reimbursed from the government. And that’s it… he doesn’t get paid anything more!! I told him that he should come to the US and be a doctor there because they get a co-payment from each patient, plus more from the insurance companies. He laughed and said he should, and that then he could buy himself the Trump Towers. So, I paid him and he walked me to the door, re-emphasizing that I should call him with any questions or if I wasn’t better in 7 days, and then he sent me on my way. I then walked about 5 minutes to a pharmacy. I waited in line for a minute or two, and then showed my prescription to the pharmacist. While she entered my information into the computer, we chatted about my time in France, how my studies were going, and if I was finding it difficult or not. She then retrieved my medicine and printed my receipt (again, to be reimbursed by insurance later). I paid 13 euros (~$17) for ibuprofen, an antibiotic, and nosespray. And with that, I walked out the door. I glanced at my watch as I headed for home: 5:35pm.

France: 1 ; US: 0.

So, anyways, this week has been one of sniffles and sleeping. Today was the first day in 8 that I made it through without taking a nap! I think I must’ve caught something last weekend…

Friday night we went to a birthday party for one of the IES students. A bunch of us met downtown to head over together… and I, being me, decided that I would delegate myself as navigator for the evening. Hah. After waiting for a tram for 20 minutes, we went one stop, only to realize that we were headed in the wrong direction. We then got off the tram and waited another 10 minutes for the tram heading in the right direction. When we got off the tram, I made sure to check the times for the tram for the rest of the night so that we wouldn’t miss the last one. I even repeated the times to about three other people in order to ensure that nobody would forget. The party was fun, but uneventful. When the time came, I rounded up the girls so that we could walk back to the tram stop in time for the last tram. It was raining outside, and I was the only one with an umbrella (thank you, Cornell… I will never leave home without again), so we ran most of the way. We got there with 5 minutes to spare, but the sign clearly said: Fin de service. As in… no more trams. How could it be!? I double-checked! We all remembered the time!! As I re-played the events from earlier, the light bulb went on: I had looked at the poster as I exited the tram… the poster for the tram that continued out of town, and not the poster for the tram returning downtown. The girls were gracious, although it was obviously my fault. I called a taxi and we stood, huddled under a tram awning, using my umbrella to block the wind, and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. I called back four times… each time to be told (I think… it was in French!) that I needed to wait longer. After over 40 minutes we could stand the cold no longer. I still am not quite sure why we didn’t just give up and go back to the party… I think we were all just exhausted and were holding out hope for a taxi to bring us home. But, no taxi came. So, one of the girls called a French friend who was at the party and begged him to come pick us up. He agreed (although, how could you resist 4 American girls begging you to take them for a ride in your car and offering to pay you handsomely for your services!) and dropped each of us of at our front doors. Needless to say, I was incredibly grateful… and incredibly soaked.

Saturday morning I woke up at 6am to head to Mont-St-Michel and St. Malo for the day with IES. It was a fabulous trip… I posted some of the pictures to the right. Mont-St-Michel was breathtaking… from afar and from within. And St. Malo was like an Ocean City mixed with a little Annapolis and with lots of European charm

However, just as we were walking along the ramparts of St. Malo, a tempest blew in. Using an umbrella was futile, and so, for the second time in 24 hours, I was completely soaked. The storm left almost as quickly as it came, and the sun came out again. It was still fun to walk through the town, squishy shoes and all. There’s a boardwalk-type area, with lots of games and rides… a couple of us girls bought some deep-friend dough sticks covered in powdered sugar and dipped in nutella. Incredible.

So, I arrived home, around 9pm, changed out of my damp clothes, and got into bed. But it was too late… Whatever sickness had found me had already dug in its heels. And so, after a week of sleeping and coughing and sneezing and sniffling and aching, here I sit, armed with my prescription drugs, ready to send this bug packing. I think I’ve had enough naps for one semester :)

No-Class Thursdays

2007-02-08T07:40:00.000-05:00

I love Thursday’s the best because, even though I have one class on Friday, Thursday feels like the beginning of the weekend. Right now it’s Wednesday night and I’m planning on staying up as late as I feel like and not setting an alarm for tomorrow. It’s going to be lovely :) Tomorrow I might go for a run, read a newspaper, watch a movie, eat a chocolate-filled croissant, people-watch, shop, think, be. What I’m not doing is having another Thursday like the last…

It was a fine morning, afternoon, evening really. I did some work and working out and had dinner at a creperie with some friends. It wasn’t until Thursday night that things got a little crazy… it started at Donatien’s apartment. Donatien is a French engineering student who I met last week at conversation club (I can’t remember if I explained conversation club before or not… it’s run by my abroad program and it’s for French students trying to learn English and American students trying to learn French). So anyways, I went to Donatien’s place with some other girls around 10pm on Thursday night. It was a small get-together – less than 10 of us – and we sat around just listening to music and chatting. It was nice actually… both to meet new people and to speak French with real French people :) At about 11:30 we left Donation’s and caught a tram downtown where we walked across the bridge to a club called Quai Ouest (pronounced: Kay West). This is like the mother-of-all dance clubs in Nantes. And apparently it’s also the place to be on Thursday nights... or so I’ve been told! The line to get in was out the door, and once you made it to the door you had to fork over 10 euros (~$13.50). I don’t know how students can afford that every week! Once we were inside, we checked our coats and purses and headed for the dance floor. The music selection in France never ceases to amaze me… from techno, to French rap, to Justin Timberlake, to 80’s music re-mixes. You never know what you’ll hear next! After about 3 hours of dancing – including dancing on several platforms around the dance floor (and being very careful not to fall off or bump someone else off!) – we got ready to leave. The club was still roaring at 3:30am, but one can only handle so much loudmusic-sketchyboys-spilleddrinks-smoky-sweaty-sticky-ness! We headed back towards downtown, back over the bridge, and wound up at a bar called VIP. I have no idea if it’s difficult to get into “VIP”, especially on a Thursday night at 3:30am, but one of the French guys we were with knew the owner so we had no problems. The bar was fun and almost sophisticated – a much older crowd than at Quai Ouest (but of course, when I say older, I mean 25!) You wouldn’t believe it until you see it, but the bars are actually still fairly crowded at that hour… and everyone is drinking and dancing and chatting, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Friday is rapidly approaching! I however, at this point, could think of nothing else. I finally made it home and I distinctly remember standing outside my apartment, searching for my keys, and looking at my phone scream: 5:30 AM. Holy moly. I slept for less than two hours before I woke up and dragged myself to class. 8:15am grammar class on Friday mornings. Whose idea was that!? I was basically a vegetable all of Friday… although, in my defense, I did find enough energy to run (and be elected) as president of our abroad program. But other than that, I barely functioned. I finally made it back home around 4:30 in the afternoon and fell into my bed (and asleep) within seconds. I slept until dinner, woke up just to eat, and promptly returned to my coma. Saturday wasn’t much better… I slept in, went on a walk, stopped by a cafe, and went to bed early. And by the time Sunday rolled around, I started to realize how much my work had piled up! I spent the majority of the next four days at my desk and in the library (which is only open until 7pm… oh if only the French could see the Cornellians asleep at 2am in the stacks, they’d realize what they’re missing!). It really hasn’t been until just now that I’ve been able to sit down and take a deep breath and realize that I’m staring at another Thursday! But like I said before, there’s no way I can handle another one like the last…

On Monday night I watched a debate with Nicolas Sarkozy,the leading French presidential candidate. Actually, it really wasn’t a debate – it was more of him answering questions that the audience (of only 100) posed him. He had no idea of what the questions would be beforehand and he had no notes in front of him. He spoke freely and confidently – not once did he seem flustered, even when the audience challenged him and, at times, even interrupted him. I was shocked at the audacity of those posing questions… they held nothing back and weren’t afraid to call Sarkozy out when he didn’t answer what they had asked. When I asked my host-mom about this, she told me it was a function of the French way – liberty, equality, and fraternity. I don’t know about these French, but I’d never dare talk to someone like that, let alone a politician who might be the president in a few months!! The French never cease to amaze me. Most of the topics of the “debate” were predictable – unemployment, homosexual marriage, social security, discrimination, the economy, relations with the US, etc. One topic that I thought was interesting – whether or not the work week should be lengthened from 35 to 40 hours and whether or not businesses should be allowed to be open on Sundays. Sarkozy’s response? If people want to work, then let them work. It’s their right to decide.

Monday was also my host-brother, Jean’s 16^th birthday. Birthdays here (or at least this one!) aren’t nearly as exciting as at home. There was an apple crisp, with candles, and a rendition of “joyeux anniversaire” but no hoopla and no gifts. I gave Jean 2 cds I had burned for him… he gave me a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek. I think he likes me :)

Other things of late…

-The shower drama continues. I still feel the need to ask every time: “Can I please take my shower now, madame?” I just can’t bring myself to go into her room without permission! She says the tub will be fixed by February 13^th… but I have my doubts.

-The cash I got at the airport has now run out. Tomorrow I will make my first trip to the atm. I have sworn off all shopping, despite the continuing “soldes” (did I mention that I bought another pair of shoes last week!?)

-My host family has taken to teasing me about being on a diet. I think this evolved somehow from me refusing to take second helpings of food one too many times. But I always eat everything, and often do take seconds, so I have no idea how they could think I’m on a diet!! But then again, I’m not sure the French know what dieting is… and since they think that all Americans are obese, I look all the more skinny to them.

-Today I bought a pen (yes, that’s ONE pen) for 2.90 euros. I then went to the pharmacy and bought a box of advil for 1.85 euros. There is something ridiculously wrong about that.

-My friend, Ruth, and I have taken to café hopping. We’re in the process of trying out all the cafés that are in the surrounding blocks of our abroad center in order to find the very best one :)

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my goals for this semester and what I want to get out of this experience. There’s so much pressure in studying abroad, both from others and from myself – the expectation to have fun, to speak, to learn, to travel, to grow, to change, to discover, to mature, to explore, to have “the best semester ever”. Sometimes the stress of these pressures is debilitating. And so, I’ve decided that, for me, I’m going to let this semester be what it is, whatever it is.

I’m going to let it be challenging at times and lazy at others.

I’m going to let it be new friends as much as lonesome and homesick.

I’m going to let it be up and down, high and low, good and bad.

I’m going to let it be everything I imagined and nothing I expected.

I’m just going to let it be.

The honeymoon's over....

2007-01-30T04:31:00.000-05:00

I've finished my first week of classes and am well into my second. You know how everyone says that studying abroad is so easy and fun and work-free... yeah, I think they were wrong. Or, maybe, they were talking about programs where you take classes in English? All I know is, I have a MOUNTAIN of reading to do and I read at the rate of 15 minutes per page in French. Also, I cannot listen and write in French at the same time... meaning that taking notes in any of my classes is practically impossible. So... yeah. Good thing these grades don't count for my gpa ;)

That being said, I haven't been so busy as to not have enough time to continue to take advantage of the "soldes" (which last only through next weekend). Or, maybe the soldes have continued to take advantage of me? All I can say is, I'm afraid to look at my bank account. I'm hoping it'll be winter here all semester because I'm not going to be able to afford spring clothes!!

My relationship with my host family has improved dramatically. Not that it was terrible in the first place, that's just to say that we've started to have actual conversations - about school, about politics, about france, about the US, about food, about shopping - where communication occurs in both directions. You don't know how fabulous 2-way communication feels until you go without! However, I still find that I am MUCH better at talking (albeit often in incomplete sentences), than I am at listening. Some things never change, no matter what language :)

Last Tuesday night we had our first "conversation club" - french students at the Nantes university (who are studying English) come to our abroad center - we spend half of the time talking in french and the other half in English. It's good practice, and nice to be, for a few minutes, the one who knows the language rather than the one who's butchering it.

On Friday night, a group of us went out for drinks and then to a discotheque (dance club) called "The Tower". You can hardly tell from the outside that there's anything inside... it's practically soundproof and there's not much fanfare surrounding the entrance. Just a line of people and a very scary looking body guard. I have no idea what he's looking for - he didn't stop me, but he stopped some people in front of me and sent them away. It's free to get in - if you can! There's a cute little window where you can check your coat and purse, and then you're ushered into this huge, two story hall. It's what you'd expect, I suppose - a bar, a stage, a dj, some chairs and tables around the perimeter. It was SO crowded and very smoky (too bad cigarettes won't be banned in clubs until 2008). The music was amusing - a lot of American songs (including a Grease medley, which the French LOVE!). The dancing was... scary at times? The french boys have no shame :) I accidentally made eye contact with some french guy, which to them, is all the invitation they need. His eyes locked onto me like a tractor beam and he pushed his way through the crowds to reach me. Our conversation:

Sketchy french boy: "Qu'est-ce que ca veut dire?" (what does that mean?)

Oblivious american girl: "Rien" (nothing)

sfb: "Rien? Non, vous me regardez. Est-ce que vous voulez dancer?" (Nothing? No, you looked at me. Do you want to dance?)

oag: "Non, merci. J'ai un petit ami." (No, thank you. I have a boyfriend.)

sfb: "Ou? Il n'est pas ici, non? J'ai une petite amie aussi." (Where? He is not here, is he? I have a girlfriend too.)

oag: --blank stare--

sfb: (realizing that I'm having trouble understanding him and desiring to test out his fabulous English speaking skills) "I can dance with you, I can kiss you, but I cannot make love to you."

Oh boy - I promptly reached for the nearest boy from our group of friends, gave him a big hug, and shoved him in the direction of my accoster. I'm not sure what he said... but he ended up with this guy's phone number. Something about a double date maybe?

Anyways, I don't think I got into bed until 3:30 that morning... and thus slept half of Saturday away. But it was worth it :) Saturday afternoon I went shopping a bit and then went out to dinner with some friends to Entrecote. It's a popular restaurant in France (a small chain - one in Paris, Lyon, and Marseilles, I believe) and the line for a table was out the door - I think we waited for an hour to sit down. But, the food was delicious and worth it. You don't really order... they serve only one thing: Salad, steak, and french fries. The steak is drenched in butter and served on a large platter for the whole table and the french fries are all-you-can-eat. And for dessert? Profiteroles :)

Sunday morning I got up early and went to mass with my host parents. Quite an interesting experience for me... I had enough background and vocabulary to follow the hymns and the reading (the verses about love... they're even more beautiful in French). However... the sermon... not so much. I honestly have not the slightest clue what he was talking about. I'm pretty sure I spent most of the time looking at the stained glass windows and at the people sitting around me. But I was glad I went... my host dad lead the hymns and it was fun to see him up front. Plus, Catholicism is a huge aspect of french culture and history, so I figure I should check it out firsthand!!

After church, we stopped by the boulangerie to pick up baguettes for the day. People in Nantes buy baguettes every single day. Every single day. At the boulangerie, there was also a man out front selling mussels (or was it clams?). My host mom said he's there every Sunday :)

Sunday brunch was delicious - especially nice I think because my mom's sister (my host aunt, if you will) was visiting from out of town. We had steak - cooked just on the outside and raw in the middle - and soup and salad and bread, of course. The bread troubles me at times - because it's so delicious and yet so nutritionally empty. My only protection is that in order to get more bread, you have to ask. Which means talking. In French. And sometimes, it's just easier to be quiet :)

A la prochaine semaine,
erica

Sprechen-zie English, anyone!?!

2007-01-22T04:27:00.000-05:00

When I was in middle school, my family went to

Germany

for two weeks on vacation. When we would walk through the cities, my little brother (10 years old at the time) would scream, “Sprechen-zie English, anyone?” I think that just about summarizes how I feel at the moment! This week has been… French-filled. Every day we’ve had orientation, grammar courses, information sessions, and tours… and all in French. Followed by evenings at home with my family, in French. TV in French. Music in French. Movies in French. Not to mention that English is forbidden at our abroad center.

Sprechen-zie English, anyone!?!

I mean, I love French. But sometimes, you just want to understand what people are saying! And you want to be able to express yourself clearly and quickly! I think the worst is at family dinners. There are times when everyone is talking – food in mouths – three conversations going on at once – French music playing in the background – and I just sit there, sometimes attempting to follow the banter, other times just laughing inside at the ridiculousness of the situation. I wish you could be a fly on the wall!! That being said, my inability to understand has humbled me quite a bit. I’m learning to listen. I’m learning to not be the center of attention. I’m learning to appreciate communication. I’m learning to be ok with not being perfect.

My week, although a bit stressful and overwhelming, helped me settle into life in Nantes. But I’m certainly ready to find a bit of normalcy now. Tomorrow I start classes – French grammar, French translation, microeconomics, France & the EU (another econ course), and French Government & Politics since 1958 (what happened in 1958, I don’t know yet!). My schedule is… interesting? I have 2 classes on Monday, 3 on Tuesday, 2 on Wednesday, NONE on Thursday, and only 1 on Friday. But I’m still taking 16 credits? I’m not sure how that works out… but I think* that one hour of class per week is equivalent to one credit?

*note: everything I say about life in France should be taken with a grain of salt – that grain of salt being that these are my interpretations of what has been told to me in French. So… yeah.

The French education system is still quite a mystery to me. For starters, it’s free. Well, not exactly free, something like 190euros each year. So, free. That changes everything really...

The campus is not especially attractive… not perfectly groomed for prospective suckers, err students.

The professors give lectures, give exams, and give grades… and that’s it. They don’t talk to students. They don’t advise. They don’t interact.

There’s no application process… if you pass the baccalaureate (a cumulative exam at the end of high school) then you can go.

Undergraduate degrees (called the “license” in French) require only 3 years. At the end of which, you can 1. find a job, 2. get your masters, or 3. apply to a professional program. But all of it’s free! Which is why, I presume, doctor’s aren’t paid as much here… they don’t have years and years of school loans to pay off!

The 3 undergraduate years are very specialized… you pick your major, and ALL of your courses are related to it. You can’t, even if you want to, take a variety of courses. If you choose history, all of your courses are history courses… if you choose literature, all of your courses are literature courses.

So yeah… fundamentally different from the U.S.! I’m looking forward to taking a course at the university (microeconomics) and seeing these difference first hand.

Now, for the most recent drama in my French life: the shower. Who would’ve thought it could cause so many problems!? First of all, in general, French showers are different from American showers. The showerhead is attached to a long cord and not to the wall. It took me 5 days to realize that it can be attached to the wall… I just thought that white bar was… decoration? So, needless to say, there were several days where I had the most interesting of shower experiences. You see, the shower isn’t really a shower at all. It’s a bathtub. And there’s not a curtain. The tub is against the wall and on one side there’s a plastic wall that extends half the length of the tub. So, if you try to shower holding the showerhead, and you turn around, forgetting you’re still holding the showerhead, the water goes ALL OVER the bathroom. Um… yeah. At least three times. Did I mention that there’s laundry hanging to dry on the other side of the bathroom? Yeah. Anyways, so one evening last week my host mom mentioned to me that someone was coming to do some work on the tub. Well the next evening, when I got home, the bathtub had been completely removed, the wall was stripped, and there was a hole in the wall with a dehumidifier in it. Apparently the entire wall was water-logged. Yick! So, my host mother said that I could take a shower in her bathroom. Which is upstairs, in her room, and is teeny-tiny. By this I mean… miniscule. Not really even big enough for one person!! And it’s not just the shower that’s teeny, it’s the bathroom itself. So teeny, that you can’t even shut the door. So… you have to take a shower with the door open. Which means, that no one can be in her room. So, taking a shower is now quite an ordeal! It’s tough in the mornings, when everyone else is getting ready to go. And I don’t want to be a bother. And sometimes I just don’t know how to ask!! Can I take a shower now, please? So, yesterday, when I got home from shopping, the house was empty so I grabbed my towel as fast as I possibly could and ran upstairs. I left a sticky note on the stairwell that said (in French, of course!): “Dear Madame Bodet, I hope it’s ok that I take a shower now! Thanks, Erica”. So, I took the quickest shower of my life, fearing that any moment someone would walk through the door. And when I finished, I wrapped my towel around me, ran down the stairs, grabbed the note I left, and just as I was ducking into my room I heard the front door open. Seriously, so much drama for just one shower!! And tonight at dinner, as far as I could understand, it could be weeks before the downstairs bathroom is fixed. WEEKS! I just keep thinking of the advice I was given when I first arrived: You must have a sense of humor about everything! Plus, clean was so last year ;)

Some miscellaneous details of my first weekend in Nantes:

Friday night I watched the first hour of this season’s 24. HOLY MOLY! Jack Bauer is the man.

SOLDES is my new favorite word. It means “sale” and it’s on EVERY store front. I spent the majority of Saturday wandering the streets of Nantes going into every shop. Sad though, that after these few weeks, there will be no more sales. None.

Saturday night I went to the movie theatre and saw Jacqou le Croquant (in French, of course!). I have vague ideas of what happened in the movie. But the main character was a cutie, so it was all good ;)

At the movie theatre, they have a screen that lists all of the movies and how many tickets are left for each showing. And they say France is still in the dark ages!

Also on Saturday night, I drank my first “aperitif” – a blackberry Kir. Can I say, fabulous? Like Madame Rouchet (our administrative director) told us: “One Kir and everything is, positif!”

Sunday morning I slept in until 11:00. It was heavenly J I then woke up and watched France’s version of American Idol. Very amusing.

Sunday’s are family day in France. Practically everything is closed – the stores, the restaurants, the supermarket. But the city is still alive! I went for a little stroll through the city and there were lots of other people doing the same thing! Of course, it was the first sunny day I’ve seen since I’ve been here! I took some pictures (see right) of the city. The red door is the apartment building where I live. Rue Deshoulieres is my street – most of the streets are named after famous artists.

Sunday afternoon with the family – drinks (I had some sort of sweet wine, I think?) in the living room, then a big lunch (fancy china and all!), then back to the living room for coffee. Lot’s of chatting (about what, I can’t really say!) and time together and lots of relaxing. Too bad American’s are too obsessed with productivity and consumerism to ever take a day like this!

Sunday evening dinner was delicious – some sort of vegetable soup, quiche Lorraine, bread and cheese, and a lemon cake.

After dinner, my host mother and I sat and chat for a while afterwards – she was quite patient with me and we actually had a real conversation! I learned that I had all of the ages of my host siblings wrong. I think I’ve finally got it straight now:

- Marie-Pauline, girl, 23 years old, studying architecture in Paris;
- Noemie, girl, 21 years old, studying to be an elementary school teacher in Paris;
- Marie-Louis (called Louis), boy, 19 years old, lives at home and goes to the University of Nantes, studying to be a doctor;
- Maria-Laticia (called Marlette), girl, 17 years old, lives at home and is in her first year at the University of Nantes, studying “droit”, which means “right” in English, which I think translates to some form of government or law?;
- Jean-Joseph (called Jean), boy, 14 years old, in his last year of “college”, which is middle school in France. Confusing, no?
- My host dad’s name is Jean-Joseph Bodet – he’s called Jean-Joseph.
- And my host mom… I just realized I have no clue what her first name is!! I just call her “Madame Bodet”. Oh well, 6 out of 7 ain’t bad?

So, here it is, Sunday evening. I think I’ll get my things ready for tomorrow and head to bed. Maybe watch the next hour of 24!

Bonsoir, mes amis :)

Touring Tours :)

2007-01-16T03:16:00.001-05:00

This past weekend all of the new “IES-ers” were shipped off to Tours, France (that’s a city… not a verb!). We spent three days visiting les chateaux of the Loire Valley (that’s castles! Amboise, Chenenceau, Bloise, and Chambord). It was an exciting, albeit exhausting weekend. I learned a lot about French history and architecture and religion and culture – and I took lots of great pictures!! And it was a great opportunity to get to know the rest of the abroad students… I already feel as though I have some close friends in this strange city :) Everyone comes from all different universities from all over the

U.S.

and from all walks of life. But it’s been interesting to watch how the group has already began to “clique-ify”. And as much as I’d like to be above it, I know that’s wishful thinking. Although, I can say I’ve made an effort to sit with new people as much as possible and to learn everyone’s name… I think I know about 75% of the names now!

The first night in Tours we all just crashed – eager to catch up on sleep and fight our jet lag. But the second night, we ventured out into the city. Tours, although not a large city, has a cute downtown area. We found a little bar and staked out a table. I had a couple very interesting conversations with the bartender and some other people at the bar… all in French, of course! It’s still very exciting to me that I can actually converse (although often with much confusion and repetition!) in French and I’m SO glad that most people either don’t know English or choose not to switch to English. When we finally left the bar we attempted to find our way back to the hotel… which turned out to be much more difficult than we expected! We hadn’t planned ahead very well… we had no cellphones, no maps, not even the address of the hotel. Oops!! There was a moment when I honestly thought we might never find our way back. And we were accosted by drunk French men several times (les filles! les filles!! les filles!!!). Haha… oh French men. SO SKETCHY! Anyways, after about an hour of wandering the city we finally found the road with our hotel. As soon as we saw it we literally screamed with joy. And hugged each other in the middle of the road. Although I was exhausted from the walking, it was an experience I’ll never forget and it certainly helped me make friends fast!

The third night one girl and I ventured downtown in search of internet… which turned into quite an adventure. We asked several people: Ou est-ce qu’on peut trouver le wifi? We were sent in different directions and finally we found a bar with a sign that said internet – 1 euro per hour. But, inside it was just a crowded bar with loud music – not very conducive to setting up our laptops!! Then, just as we were about to continue on with our search, one of the bartenders opened the door and asked us if we wanted to come in. We told him we were searching for internet… he then proceeded to ask if we were with a different abroad group because apparently they offer free internet to abroad students from that group… and we explained that we were abroad students, but not from that group… he seemed to think for a minute and then told us to come in… so, after a little hesitation we followed him in… and across the bar… and then behind the bar… where he unlocked a door… and then ascended a very sketchy staircase… and opened another door… (ok, obviously at this point we were completely freaked out and starting to wonder if this wasn’t a really REALLY bad idea)… but then, he opened the door, and there was a computer lab! And a really nice computer lab at that! There were four computers, a couch, bright lights, plenty of outlets, and even a sign about video surveillance. SO weird! But, we were content to have found a place with internet, so we happily set up our laptops and spent almost 2 hours there! Nobody bothered us… we were the only people there (everyone else had other plans for a Saturday night ;) ). It was seriously the most sketchy and ridiculous thing ever… right above a bar… Ruth and I… alone in this room with our laptops. SO weird! When we finished (around midnight) we descended the sketchy staircase, banged on the door as loud as we could (to be heard above the LOUD bar music, which was of course American as in all the French bars, restaurants, airports, and hotels!) and when they let us out we exited the way we came – around the bar, across the room, and out the door! The guy said we could use the internet for free, but we figured we should pay him for being so generous to us. And that was it! We walked home (this time with our map and cellphones) and found our hotel without a problem.

Sunday morning we had 2 hours of placement exams and then we headed back to Nantes. I slept the entire ride home and then my host mom picked me up at the IES center. I returned home to a delicious meal – salad and steak – served really rare… and by that I mean moo-ing rare!! But SO good :) And baguettes too, of course. Always baguettes! After dinner I watched Funny Face (with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire – but dubbed in French!) with my host sister. It’s weird to me how much American pop culture is in France – it’s everywhere!! Music, movies, tv shows – they have it all!

Sunday night, when I climbed into bed, it finally hit me: I’m in France. And for 4 months. I know I AM glad to be here. But adjusting to a new way of living is difficult and takes time. My life here will be much more solitary than ever before. Which is a good thing, I know. I’m looking forward to time to think and reflect and read. I’m looking forward to learning about this city and this culture and this language. I’m looking forward to getting out of my American box and seeing the world from a different perspective.

Au revoir USA...

2007-01-16T03:13:00.001-05:00

Bonjour France :)

Phew! I made it!! The past 28 or so hours have been a little intense. Let me recap:

1/9/2007

12:00am - Turn 21! This was really tough ;)

1:00pm - Farewell lunch where I ordered my first drink! A cosmo, naturally :)

2:30pm – to Dulles airport. When I got in to the front of the check-in line, I weighed my bag and realized it was 51.5 pounds. The scale was right next to a large sign, which read: $50 for bags over 50 pounds. Yikes! Some quick re-arranging evened things out a bit, although I did end up having to carry-on more than I planed. Oh well. In the end, my two suitcases were 47 and 44 pounds. I swear I didn’t overpack! I really really tried to limit myself. I only brought one purse!!! Although, I guess I could’ve left a couple of the 8 pairs of shoes behind… and mom did say that 18 pairs of underwear was a bit excessive… or maybe over 2 liters of hair products was a little over the top? What can I say? I’m obviously going to have to hold a small garage sale (do they even do those in France – let alone in the middle of a bustling metropolis?!) so that I can make room for all of my new acquisitions!

3:00pm – finally got my boarding pass, dragged my 100 pounds of luggage over to security and headed for the currency exchange. I decided on 280 euros – well, actually I asked for 250, but the lady somehow convinced me to get 280 instead. Something about waived fees… Anyways, 280 euros cost me about $409. That’s a lot of money! A lot of my money – not even from mom and dad! I’m so nervous carrying it around. I suspect everyone around me of eyeing my bag (especially ‘cause it’s a long-johns ;) ) and I try to think as a pickpocket would. I saw one man counting his dough on the tram and then he just shoved it into his pocket. I hoped any pickpocketers would have noticed that as an easy target and would leave me alone!

3:30pm – I made it through security without a problem. Although, dad did get yelled at for trying to take pictures of me while I walked through. Apparently that’s not allowed? I said goodbye to mom and dad and headed for the terminal on my own. I stopped by starbucks and paid an exorbitant amount of money for a bottle of water and got change for a USA Today. I sat and read the paper and did the crossword… secretly watching the people around me and trying to figure out what they were doing on a flight to Paris. I also spent quite some time trying to decipher the French conversation going on behind me. I made out about one in every ten words. My nervousness has now skyrocketed – I have a lot of brushing up to do! I realized that maybe I should be spending my reading my French dictionary instead of blogging. Nah :)

4:30pm – I passed the time by people watching… The girl next to me was going to Paris to study abroad. She talked to her boyfriend at least twice. And just about every other person in her phonebook too! I also tried to figure out which people were American and which were European. Kind of a fun game :)

4:45pm – I watched two little birdies eat some tortilla chips right by my gate – I can’t figure out how they got inside!!

5:00pm – Boarded the plane – a 767. HUGE! Seriously – like they have in the movies – economy class seats are grouped 2 – 5 – 2. SO many people in such a cramped space. I had an inner seat in the middle section. Quite possibly the most uncomfortable 6 hours of my life. The first class is incredible – the seats turn into beds at the touch of a button. Someday I want to try that out. Besides the cramped-ness, the flight was fine. The food was decent – good, even. Oh, and I ordered a screwdriver. I practically shoved my id in the flight attendant’s face, but even then he wouldn’t even look at it! I tried to fall asleep the entire time… and never succeeded. Oh well… sleep is overrated?

1/10/2007

7:00am (Paris time, now) – Arrival went smoothly. I actually even stuck up a conversation with the couple beside me – they were going to Paris to visit their daughter. And then, at the last second, just before we de-boarded, the girl on the other side of me asks, “Are you going to IES?” And I say yes. And we both laugh – ‘cause we had been sitting next to each other the entire flight and never said a word. And now it was time to get off!

7:30am – Immigration. Basically a big, unorganized line. You show your passport. And they stamp it. That’s it!

8:00am – Customs. Aka, a hallway. They didn’t check anything. Didn’t require any forms. Didn’t look at my passport. Didn’t look in my bags. At first I thought I must’ve just sneaked out!! But, someone else confirmed that I had left the right way. I’m not sure what that was all about… and why everyone told me I should plan on 2 hours… but I’m just glad I didn’t have to wait forever!

8:30am – I got lost in CDG. I got on the wrong bus. And had 3 very confusing conversations with Parisians in French. I got 3 different answers (as far as I could understand!) and I finally ended up on what seemed to be the right bus. I found the first friendly face and hoped for the best. She was French, but coming back from visiting friends in the US. Perfect! At this point I gave up on finding my way in French… I just wanted to get there! She was quite friendly – filled me in on the ins and outs of CDG airport and chatted about studying abroad in general. Her advice: don’t stick with the other Americans ‘cause you’ll never really experience France nor will you pick up the language as well. I just hope I’ll be brave enough to heed it!
9:00am – I finally found the train station, thanks to ma nouvelle amie francaise. I parked myself in the “salle d’attente” to wait for the train to arrive. Meanwhile, my friend Maddie (a fellow Cornellian) met up with me. A French boy, sitting across from me, struck up a conversation with me. He was friendly, although I have a feeling we didn’t communicate very well. For the majority of the conversation he thought I was traveling to Limognes, which I then interpreted as London, and from there it just got more muddled… but it was still nice to chat a bit with someone!

10:45am – The train ran a little late, about 20 minutes. By the time I finally got my luggage settled and found my seat, I absolutely crashed. I was disappointed in myself, because this was my first opportunity to actually see France (other than the airport!) but I was just way too exhausted to sit and look out the window. As soon as the train started to move, I was sound asleep.

1:45PM - The trip went by quickly. When we pulled into the station, there were a group of “IES-ers” already gathered. We were then guided to the taxi line. Taxis in France are quite different. They’re really nice – we saw 2 bmws! – and they look just like regular cars you’d see on the road, except they have little taxi lights on the top. No yellow cabs in France! What we couldn’t figure out is how come someone who can afford a BMW would be driving a taxi? Anyways, another girl and I took a cab to the IES center where we then attempted to get our luggage to the 4^th floor using a teeny-tiny elevator. By that I mean, big enough for two small people – it barely fit me and my 100+ pounds of luggage! At this point they gave us a brief tour of the IES center – it’s two floors and very quaint. There’s several classrooms, a library, a kitchen, a tv room, a computer room, and a few study rooms. There’s also a very very teeny bathroom. And apparently nobody in France uses paper towels. Just dryers. I HATE dryers. I mean, I know they save the environment. So, in that respect, good for France. But they also don’t work! I can honestly say that I’ve never once used a hand dryer and actually ended up with dry hands! Just wet jeans :/

2:30pm – At this point, those of us who had arrived at IES, about 10 of us I’d guess, were absolutely wiped. We all crashed in one of the classrooms, luggage surrounding us, and all whipped out our laptops. It was quite a site, I’ll tell you. There’s wifi at the IES center so all of us were contentedly emailing and facebooking. Apparantly, you can take the girl out of America… but you can’t take the America out of the girl :)

3:30pm – We were all famished, so we ventured out into the city. It was hard to take it all in – so much to see! I’m looking forward to the day when I know Nantes intimately, I really am. We saw La Cigale (the famous café) and a demonstration about homelessness (they had tents set up all over). We were looking for somewhere to grab a bite to eat, and this one shop stood out to us. We walked in (11 of us at this point) and asked for a table. There was no one there, which I found a bit weird. And as the gentleman was seating us, I looked around in search of menus, a kitchen, silverware, napkins – any sign of food! We finally asked le garcon if they served food and he gave us a very confused look… turns out it was just a bar with lots of tables that looked like a restaurant! We felt pretty ridiculous when we had to turn around and walk out… all 11 of us. In fact, we felt ridiculous the entire afternoon – a gaggle of American girls, utterly clueless, traipsing about the city. Anyways, we finally found a little sandwich stand – I ate a baguette with mozzarella and ham and tomato and hard-boiled egg. Yum J Oh, and we also walked down the main shopping avenue – AMAZING! Every single store had some sort of sign saying “SOLDES”, which in French means “sales”. They started today and I’m told they’ll last several weeks. Everything is 30, 40, or even 50 percent off. It’s a bargain shopper’s dream!

4:30pm – We returned to the IES center very full and even more tired then when we left. Back to the laptops while we waited for everyone else to arrive.

5:30pm – The families started arriving and as every minute passed the number of students left at the IES decreased more and more. By about 6:30, I was still waiting there. We all had butterflies in our stomachs… wondering with each host mom that walked through the door if she was there for us. It was nervewracking!

6:45pm – My host mom arrived – Madame Bodet. I was SO nervous. On top of which I had my 100+ pounds of luggage to drag behind me. When I walked up to her she kissed me on both cheeks. And then we left! We took her car the 1km or so to her apartment and chatted the whole way – in French of course! She speaks very little English… so if I couldn’t come up with the words in French, there was nothing to fall back on! But, we seemed to communicate fairly well. She praised my speaking skills too, which of course made me more confident to speak even more.

7:00pm – I finally arrived at my new home. I met the rest of the family, well except for Monsieur Bodet who is in Paris for work. There are three kids – boy (16), girl (18), boy (20). They SO remind me of my own family. It’s actually creepy. Always laughing and joking and having fun with each other. I spent the first hour or so in my room unpacking and arranging my things. It’s a very cute room - and more spacious then I ever would’ve imagined!

8:00pm – My first family dinner :) We sat at the dining room table and dug in – noodles with cheese and ham, baguette, and salad (with some greenery I’d never seen before – a cross between clovers and spinach?). It was all very delicious!! We chatted while we ate and I did my best to understand their banter. I didn’t catch everything, although Madame Bodet was good about filling me in when she knew I wasn’t following. After the main course (if you will), we had cheese and fruit. Dessert, I guess? Either way, it was delicious and healthy and just what I wanted after so much airplane food!

9:00pm – I finished straightening up my room and got ready for bed… which is where I am now as I type this blog. Snuggled under my down comforter and ready to crash.

I’ve been up since 7:30am on Tuesday. It’s currently 10:06pm on Wednesday.

Goodnight, Nantes :)

Hello 2006.

2006-01-02T23:39:00.000-05:00

It's been a long year. A good year. A crazy year. And definitely a year of firsts...

I finished my first year of college.

I visited NYC for the first (and second, third and fourth) times.

I created my first blog :)

I finally got my first sister!

I got my first real internship.

I moved into my first apartment.

I even finished my first crossword puzzle ever!

Haha, but seriously. 2005 was a good year. I have many memories and few regrets. So here's to a good year past and a great year beginning...

To do in '06

buy my first real suit!
listen.
get an A+
watch the news!
learn to play ice hockey
sled down Libe slope
write letters
be crazy ... er ;)

But my biggest goal for 2006 is this: to appreciate more. Appreciate my family, my friends, my education, my material blessings, my jobs, my food, my life. Last week my family and I spent Christmas day in downtown Baltimore giving out food and gifts to the homeless. I had one tin of cookies. And I'll tell you, those men and women and children flocked around me like seagulls. And they were so grateful. For a cookie. And a smile. And a 'Merry Christmas'. I've never felt more guilty getting into a new car to drive to a nice home in suburbia for a warm meal and a comfy bed. And although I pray I will never see the end of these blessings, I hope even more that I will never again take them for granted. I will appreciate the little things in 2006.

Sorry to get so mature on y'all, but hey, I've only got 6 more days to figure out how to be an adult!! Or maybe make that, only 6 more days to live it up as a teenager ;)

Happy New Year!

~erica

change.

2005-11-13T01:46:00.000-05:00

If I could change one thing about myself, I'd like to be more spontaneous -- more crazy -- more spur of the moment.

Unfortunately, we all know that I am a plan-a-holic. So instead, I've decided to change my hair. I've had straight, long, brown hair for my entire life. Literally, since I was born (well, maybe not the long part, but still!) And so in two weeks I am going to cut it all off. Ok, not all of it. But a lot of it!!

So tonight I was over at a friend's and I explained to him my big plan. I showed him this picture to give him an idea of the style I was going for. He, however, was having quite a difficult time envisioning me with such drastically different hair. And so...

psychedelic

Haha, wow.

But seriously -- aside from the crazy background, odd proportions, and mischevious smirk -- what do you think? Could I pull it off? Seriously, I want to know. So speak now or forever hold your peace.

(This means leave a comment. Seriously. Leave one. Just click the link at the end that says 'comment'. It will only take a second and you don't even have to say much... just a 'yay' or 'nay' will do it. And yes, I'm talking to you. You can even make it anonymous if you're afraid I'll think it's weird or stalkerish that you're reading my blog.)

Although, now that I really think about it, I guess this isn't that spontaneous at all. I guess just can't help it! I love to plan!

Some things just never change.

I love elipses.

2005-10-30T19:25:00.000-05:00

Not that that's any suprise at all to you. I'm going to try to write an entire post without using them. This might prove to be insanely difficult for me.

So, can I just say that I hate, no LOATHE, the car shop. I have been there at least half a dozen times in the past month. And no, not because my car is a piece of junk. Because the people that work there are incompetent. Seriously lacking in mental capabilities. And those are their good traits! It all started a month or so ago when I took my car their to have the heater fixed. No prob they said. So they fix it all up and a couple hundred dollars later I'm all set to go. Well, I hadn't so much as made it home when I noticed a small crack in my control panel. --sigh-- So back I go. I show them the problem and they apologize profusely and promise to order a new panel for me and install it for free. Sweet. I love new parts. Mine was looking a little dull anyways. So a week goes by and no word. So I call, and as politely as possible, inquire about the situation. Panel? What? Broken? Parts? Sweet. My car mechanic has amnesia. He has no clue what I'm talking about. So, I have to explain the whole story to him. At the end of which he says, ohhh! that part! As if he had just conveniently forgot. Right. So anyways, turns out he hadn't ordered it yet. ugh. so another week goes by. i call again. and once again he has no clue who i am or why i'm calling. i explain the entire story. again. and once i have jogged his memory he suddenly remembers that he ordered the part but it's on back order so it'll be a few more days. AH! needless to say i'm starting to feel slightly frustrated. but hey, no big deal. it's just a part and it's no big deal if i have to wait a little longer. so finally they get the part in and i bring my car down to have them put it in. i'm chilling out in the waiting room since they said it'd take less than an hour and after about ten minutes the guy comes over with this part in his hands. oh no. here we go again. so, he says, here's the new part. but it's chipped. do you still want me to put it in? well at this point i have just about had it. yes i said, just put it in. it's not so noticeable and i really just want to be done with this whole ordeal. so he goes back. and i sit. and sit. and sit. and almost two hours later he finally comes to tell me it's done. phew. finally. so i go to leave. get in car. turn on car. check out fancy new panelling. cringe at chip and scold myself for not waiting for a new part. turn on radio. radio panelling falls off in hand. FALLS OFF IN MY HAND!? what?! luckily i hadn't even left yet so i just walk right back in. this time i speak to a manager. that's right. i mean business. or at least i tried to mean business. right up until i started crying. i just couldn't take it anymore! i didn't want them to touch my car one more time but if i left it would broken until i paid someone else to fix their mistake! so i explain the whole situation to this guy ('cause of course he has no idea who i am or why i'm there) and he goes to look at it. It's broke he says. awesome. wonderful. just great. so he says he'll order me a new one but it'll take a few days. of course, i nod. a few days. right. so i finally leave to go home. and what do you know. about half way home i go to turn on the a/c, but for some reason it's blowing hot air. so i wait. and wait. and wait. and now i'm home. and it's still blowing hot air. there's no cold air. WHAT?! THE WHOLE REASON I WENT TO THE CAR SHOP IN THE FIRST PLACE WAS BECAUSE IT WOULD ONLY BLOW HOT AND NOW IT WILL ONLY BLOW COLD!?! needless to say, i lost it completely at that point. i'm still not sure if i have recovered. i've been back since. and they fixed the heating problem. the stereo's still broken though. who know's if it'll ever get fixed. i'm not keeping my fingers crossed.

.erica.

mmm... sleep.

2005-10-12T22:39:00.000-05:00

I'm back from fall break and let me just say, it was amazing! I promised myself that I would really take the weekend off... I went so far as to only allow myself to do something if I felt like it. That meant no work. No getting up early. No nothing. So, basically I slept, snuggled in my bed, ate lots of good food, slept, hung out with family and friends, slept, shrugged off all forms of responsibility... did I mention that I slept? It was beautiful. I think I slept more over the past 4 days than I did the entire first half of the semester. Ridiculous.

But, honestly, I'm glad to be back! My break was refreshing, enough so to make me ready for the next round. I think I gained a new perspective on things... like, what's really important. No matter what these crazy-psycho engineers say, it's not school. Don't get me wrong, I know that studying and working hard is good (i mean seriously, you didn't expect me to change that much, did you!?) but when I look back on things, am I really going to remember -- let alone care -- if I aced my statistics prelim? No, what'll I remember are the fun times, the crazy times, the stayed-up-all-night-with-friends-even-though-i-had-a-test-the-next-day times. I need more of those.

So that's my goal for the rest of this semester. Care less about school and more about things that matter: friends, family, laughter, love. (and yes, you'll definitely need to remind me of this in two weeks when prelims start up again...)

I'm off to my bed now. I wish it was as comfy as my bed at home... and I wish my mom was here to tuck me in. But it'll do, it'll do.

nighty-night,
erica

right...

2005-10-05T22:53:00.000-05:00

Sorry about random pictures of me. I'm not obsessed with myself... really I'm not!! I'm just, at times, technically challenged ;)

I know, I know...

2005-09-30T21:21:00.000-05:00

...it's been forever. I'm sorry. I really have no excuse. Honestly, I just forgot!! Well, that is until I was pleasantly reminded the other day the my blog is starting to collect dust!! So, my sincerest apologies. I didn't mean to leave you high and dry. Life's just been a little crazy :)

The first month or so of classes has flown by. I just took my first prelims this week... for those of you who don't know what 'prelim' means, it's Cornell's way of taking a 'midterm' and multiplying it! So, instead of having one big test half-way through the semester, you have two or three big tests and then a final... and Cornell, being so considerate, would hate to have you miss any minute of valuable instruction, so they make them at night... one and a half hour exams at 7:30 pm... and of course, they're on the complete opposite side of campus. Not that I'm bitter or anything. Not at all.

But, that aside, my prelims have gone fairly well. I say that now because I haven't actually gotten my grades back yet. Don't ask me about it next week.

Something else I'm not bitter about: Engineering courses. We go to lecture, sit there for an hour with blank stares on our faces, generally having no clue what the prof is talking about (either because the material is over our heads, or more likely 'cause he doesn't speak english!) and then we go home and read the book... and read the book... and read the book. And then we take prelims, and we all fail. Literally, the mean is below 60. And for some reason we all act like this is ok!?! Am I crazy here? Am I the only person who thinks this is a bit ridiculous!? I find myself not even suprised when I look at my notes from a lecture and have no clue what they mean. And getting a 65 doesn't even phase me. I walk out of prelims and think, 'well, at least I got one problem!' I feel like I'm the only person who feels this way... maybe everyone else is just really smart. Or maybe no one will ever say anthing because nobody else does... stupid competitive engineers. There's enough jobs for everyone!

Anyways, other than that, life is good. Really, it is. I love my new house :) It's so fun... and having a housemate who can cook is a beautiful thing. Megan's a food science major and a food fanatic. The other day after my prelim she made me home-made cinnamon buns. And she tells me things like, reasons why some cheese cracks and others don't and why lettuce goes bad and how to cook just about anything. And she brings home fresh pressed applesauce. And she makes the best cookies ever. And she talks about enzymes and amino acids and other big words. So, if you ever want some gourmet food, you know where to come!! Just bring some good ingredients :)

I also love my house because we have digital cable. TiVo is amazing. I don't even want to watch regular TV anymore. I watch the music video channel (where you pick which songs you want to see!) and then record the shows I like and watch them later... when I can fast forward through the commercials!! Seriously, it's one of the best inventions ever.

Alright, that's all for now. My room looks like a tornado hit it, and if I don't clean it soon the piles of clothes might evolve into monsters that will eat me in my sleep (I always though Darwin was a smart guy!)

I won't forget about you anymore... I'll be back soon :)

...erica

Bye Bye Summer

2005-08-26T19:28:00.000-05:00

So, here I am back at good ol' Cornell. Craziness. I have yet to fully grasp the fact that summer is really over. Being here has just been fun so far. Lots of friends to see, a big house to organize and decorate, lots of fun things to do. Even going to classes wasn't so bad! I'm only taking 15 credits this semester, so I'm hoping I'll be able to enjoy it... but let's be real, classes are classes, and mine are all engineering. But on the bright side, I'm in my last semester of engineering math!! I can't even express how excited I am to be done with that.

So the house is pretty cool. It's not as sketch as most... very clean and spacious. It acutally feels like a house :) And there's an empty room... so if you need a place to live, let me know!! And if you're here and haven't come over, you should! I love to have visitors!

So, summer ended nicely... here's a picture of me in my pink hard hat on the construction site:

hardhat!

Yeah, I know you're just about as jealous as all those construction workers.

So, the craziness of life is starting to pick up again. It's funny how busy we let ourselves get... no not let, insist. we crave busyness... we are obssessed with it. When we're not busy, we're bored and 'lazy'. I don't think it's very healthy. But hey, I'm probably the number one culprit, so who am I to talk!? I just chatted with Elizabeth (she says hi to all and she misses everyone here at school!) and she said she was going to work for a while and then travel in the spring. She said she considered going to Israel to live in a commune. Wow. Could you imagine? I kick myself for getting so caught up in the craziness of classes and clubs and all the other craziness... and I never even allow myself to entertain the possibility of doing something different. something unique. something not so in line with the American standard, but what I want. what i love. what i value. something that doesn't necessarily fit into the mold. something maybe not so busy and stressful, but meaningful nonetheless.

so, that's what i've been thinking about. take it or leave it. i'm glad that you at least read it :)

~erica

more pictures!

2005-08-08T15:15:00.000-05:00

Yay! I finally got back my pictures from Boston. They're not so great, since they came off of a disposable camera, but they're still cute :) This is Jordan and me at Quincy Market...

quincy market

And this is me sitting on Boston Common!!

boston common

Here's Sumner and Jordan in their Red Sox jerseys the day we went to Fenway...

boys

Anyways, just thought I'd share a few of those :) I'm totally crazed right now with all the last minute 'to-do' items. I'm headed back to Cornell on the 19th!! Man that's soon. It's quite depressing to think that summer is practically over and it's time to get back to work. --sigh-- I guess I always knew that the fun would have to come to an end. But, if I'm really honest, I'm pretty excited to get back into the swing of things. Literally... I miss swing dancing!! And friends and even classes maybe a little. I can even admit that I miss Ithaca weather... what with it being over 100 here with the heat index.... haha just kidding!! I'd take 100 degrees over 2 feet of snow and negative temperatures any day :)

So in approximately 10 days I will be moving into my very first apartment. It's actually more of a house than an apartment, but same-dif. It's kinda wierd to think about. I'm really really going to be on my own now. I'm going to have to pay rent and clean and cook. It's scary... I'm starting to feel mature. Yuck. I still want to be Peter Pan and fly around NeverNeverland and never ever grow up. No sir. Not me!

Lol, anyways... I'll be back on the 19th so if you're in Ithaca come visit me!! It's 118 Blair Street :)

For the rest of you... feel free to come for a weekend!! You know you want to...

I'm off to do some 'work' now ;) 'til we meet again...

...erica

California

2005-07-23T09:30:00.000-05:00

I finally got the pictures back from California... although now that seems like forever ago!

Here's ben and I right underneath the Hollywood sign. That's about as close as you can possibly get to it!

hollywood

This is Balboa Park...

balboa park

And here's us at the San Diego Zoo!! Behind us is the giant panda that they had there on loan from China!

panda

Anyways, I just wanted to share those with you :) Eventually I'll get some back from Boston too!

~erica

b-o-r-e-d

2005-07-22T13:02:00.000-05:00

I know, I know... where have I been!?

Well, last week I was up at Cornell for engineering camp... super cool I know. But seriously, it was a really fun time. There were fourty high school girls there for the week and i was basically a camp counselor (also pronounced: babysitter) It was an exciting week, lots of activities and good food too :) It was quite wierd being back in Ithaca though. For starters, it was warm. No, not warm, ridiculously hot. It was in the 90's... in Ithaca!! I was very out of sorts. And on top of that, I had absolutely no work and no stress. No classes, no prelims, no essays. Just fun :) So it was quite an interesting week and it definitely made me excited to head back there in the fall.

So, I got back from there late Satuday. And after I had been home for not even a few hours, I had to go to the hospital to see a friend. Yick. I seriously thought I was going to pass out. I had to walk in through the ER, and I half expected to see some stretchers with bloody people on them and needles everywhere and lots of craziness (just like ER!!) but nope. It was pretty quiet. I was still sufficiently freaked out, but I held my own. So I was there until about 2 in the morning, at which point I took my friend home (he's going to be fine luckily) So then, after sleeping all day Sunday, it was back to work on Monday!! There was lots to catch up on after being gone for a week.

Then Wednesday I went down to the ocean with my family... it was so nice... sunny and beautiful. Funny story though... so i'm out in the ocean boogey-boarding, you know riding the waves and such. Well next thing I know I'm pretty far out in the water, practically behind where the waves are crashing. So I start to try and head towards shore. But of course, I'm not nearly strong enough to make it there anytime soon. I wasn't panicked, just ready to go back to the beach! Well then all of a sudden, this head pops out of the water right next to me and says "HI"! It scared me half to death because i didn't see anyone coming! So it's this kid, about my age, beach blonde hair... actually kinda cute ;)... but i couldn't think about that because i was too busy being sketched out. There was absolutely no one any where near us in the water, and all i could think was, "oh no..." But then, in that moment i saw that he was sporting a red bathing suit and i realized, it's the lifeguard! So I say, "hi!??" and he says, "um, do you mind swimming a little bit over there... you're kinda in the middle of a rip tide" Oh great. So here I am, totally oblivious, being dragged out to sea. So anyways, he wants to swim in with me to make sure that i'm ok, but he's so close to me that i keep kicking him!! Wow... talk about embarassing. He must have been blowing his wistle at me for several minutes before he finally dived in the water and ran out to "save" me. nice erica, nice.

So anyways, that was wednesday and the past two days i've been answering phones at the church office. So, that's why i'm extremely bored. Because nobody calls on fridays, especially not after lunchtime. So here i sit. Waiting for the phone to ring. At least I'm getting paid!

Welp, that's all that's new here...

erica

more summer craziness...

2005-07-08T18:40:00.000-05:00

i LOVE boston!

last weekend i visited the city for the first time ever, and it was really incredible. everything is so old... not old in a gross way, but in an intriguingly historic way. i left Friday morning on a 6am Greyhound bus. i must say, i was definitely a little sketched out by the whole bus ordeal, but i made it to NYC alive. i spent the afternoon there... window shopping in greenwich, acting bohemian in soho, haggling in chinatown, and wandering through times square. justin met us (p.s. did i mention my sumner came with!? oops!) for lunch and took us to a delicious bbq place. yumm. and then it was off to boston! the weekend was filled with adventures, including a game and tour at fenway, sitting in the shade on boston common and walking around harvard yard... or yahd as a true bostonian would say ;)

i got back late sunday night, and well... i'm gone again. this time i'm back up at school. in fact, i'm currently posting this from the computer in the lab at the student center. it's pretty wierd to be on campus, especially with everything being so empty. i'm here to work at an engineering camp... that's right, a week-long high school girl's engineering camp. call me a nerd, but i think it's actually gonna be pretty fun! right now it's just the program assistants who are here, but the girls will get here tomorrow afternoon. so tonight i've got a date with my book and my bed :)

i'll be back late saturday!

'til then...

...erica

home sweet home

2005-06-29T19:53:00.000-05:00

i'm suprised to see that you came back after that last one...

but it's nice to know that ya'll care about me :)

so, i'm home from California now. it was a fun trip...

we saw LA - watched some movie stars walk down the red carpet, drove through ritzy neighborhoods, saw the kodak theatre where the academy awards are, and drove up to the Hollywood sign.

we stayed closer to San Diego - we ventured to the beach a few times, although i was never really impressed. they're pretty much small and smelly! i'd take the atlantic anyday over that! but it was cool to "swim in the pacific" and i loved watching the surfer boys. we finally were able to watch the sunset... instead of having to get up ridiculously early to watch the sunrise! we went kayaking too, in the caves of La Holla. And we went to the zoo!! it didn't quite live up to all the praise it's given, but i had fun....i really liked the gorillas :)

we spent a day in mexico... um, that was interesting. we got out of the car in what seemed to be spring break central. we couldn't get away from the excruciatingly loud music and wherever we went we were attacked by street vendors. we must have looked ridiculous. mr. and mrs. tourist with their two kiddos... here for the partay! right. so that didn't really last long. but it was fun to say we went!

on saturday we went to disney. again, not really as cool as the east coast, but still fun. i got to see lots of princesses and we saw a production of aladdin!

benji and i took the red eye home sunday night, but the 'rents are still out there. i think i'm finally over that whole jet lag thing, but i still feel a little out of things.

it's fun being home alone, although way too much work. when we first got home i realized that we had absolutely no food. so i went to the store to get groceries, what with the $13 my parents left me for the week. right. so, we got bread and milk and other necessities. i've been raiding the freezer every night to scrounge up dinner. tonight i made bacon potato chowder with frozen potatoes and canned broth. yum. haha, and ben of course is no help. yesterday he told me i had to make him a sandwich because he didn't know how. ugh... brothers.

it's storming pretty badly outside... lots of thunder and lightening! kinda scary being home alone and all. ::shudder::

alrighty, that's all for now... the brownies are almost done!! it was nice chatting... i'd love to hear how you're doing, since now you know all about my travels!!

always,

erica

right now i just don't...

2005-06-18T20:09:00.000-05:00

I think you know what I'm getting at
I find it so upsetting that
the memories that you select
you keep the bad but the good you just forget

And even though I'm angry I can still say
I know my heart will break the day
when you peel out and drive away
I can't believe this happened

And all this time I never thought that all we had would be all for not...

No, I don't hate you
don't want to fight you
know I'll always love you
but right now I just don't like you
No, I don't hate you
don't want to fight you
know I'll always love you
but right now I just don't like you
cause you took this too far

Make your decision and don't you dare think twice
go with your instincts along with some bad advice
this didn't turn out the way I thought it would at all
you blame me but some of this is still your fault

I tried to move you, but you just wouldn't budge
I tried to hold your hand but you'd rather hold your grudge
I think you know what I'm getting at
you said goodbye and I just don't want you regretting that

No, I don't hate you
don't want to fight you
know I'll always love you
but right now I just don't like you
No, I don't hate you
don't want to fight you
know I'll always love you
but right now I just don't like you

'cause you took this too far...

"Which to Bury; Us or the Hatchet" ~Relient K

sigh.

I'm leaving for San Diego in the morning. Maybe it will be good for me... to get away and sort through all of this... stuff.

I'll be back in a week.

'til then,

erica

phew!

2005-06-13T21:54:00.000-05:00

That's about all I can say!! I'm exhausted! This weekend was absolutely wonderful :)

So, I'll start where I last left off. The bachelorette party :) It was really fun... but no strippers, Jordan! We all met for pina coladas at the maid of honor's house...

party-time

...and we made diane get all dolled up!!

bachelorette

And of course we decorated the car...

honk!

...and then we were on our way! We went downtown to Baltimore for dinner at a nice cuban restaurant, and then to a club for a little dancing :) Diane had fun with a bouqet of blow-pops which she carried around and asked random men, "suck for a buck?" She actually made quite a bit of money selling those lollipops!! Dancing was very fun... and of course everyone wanted to dance with the bride-to-be (or at least buy her a drink!!) Here's Di and I at the club...

sisters

After we left, we met up with the boys (who were having their own bachelor par-tay) around 3am for some donuts and a few laughs. When I finally got to bed it was almost 4 and then I was up early in the morning for even more wedding hoop-la! We had a bridesmaids luncheon Thursday... Di took us to the easter shore for a boat ride...

boat

...and then crabs for lunch!! Man, were they were delicious... and not to mention gi-normous!! And after that Di and I came home to celbrate my daddy's birthday... with steak!! Haha, I was sooo full, but you know me, never one to pass up on some good food ;) Then Friday was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. A little stressful, but fun to be with family and friends. And then the wedding!! It was beautiful. Just like a fairy-tale... We tried to keep Di from being nervous or stressed and it was nice because we had about 45 minutes to just relax and the church before the ceremony. Everything was going smoothly, but then right as I was about to walk into the church to proceed to the front, one of the roses fell off my bouquet. YIKES! I didn't know what to do because if I turned around or said anything, Diane would see and freak out... and so, in my panic, I threw it in a nearby closet!! Lol, oh well. Besides that, everything went without a problem. Here's me and my cousin Brianna, the flower girl...

flower girl

...she was adorable. Here's the newlyweds :) That kiss must've lasted a good minute! At least long enough to get several pictures!!

kiss

Awww, cute, I know. Here's the whole wedding party...

wedding party

And the reception was extraordinary. The food was marvelous... salad, champagne, filet, bread, champagne, cake, asparagus, champagne, cake... lol, all my favorites. Did I mention there was champagne? ;) And a tasty little drink called a "lemon-drop martini" yum. I think I might have liked those even more than the champagne! Haha, but there really wasn't much time for drinking because we were all WAY too busy dancing. The reception was under a tent, right on the chesapeake bay, but man was it hot. I was really sweaty...

dancing
...but having way too much fun to care! It all went by soo fast, and pretty soon we were sending J and Di off with sparklers :) It was a little emotional, saying good-bye to my big brother... but fun to see him so incredibly happy and in love.

So here I sit. Can you see now why I might be a tad exhausted?? We've had family in all weekend, but now things are finally quieting down. It has been fun, but I must say... I'm relieved. Things have been really stressful around here, and I'm ready for some real summer relaxation. Ben will be done school in a few days and then our family --minus jason of course :*( -- will be off to San Diego for vacation. I'm working on convincing my mom that we need to go to the spa and on my dad that we should bring some champagne ;)

Lol, so I'm off to bed. It's back to work tomorrow...

nighty-night,

erica

craziness...

2005-06-08T10:46:00.000-05:00

Dear Erica,
I can see that today might not be the best day to mention it; however, i have noticed that your extremely entertaining blog site has hit a slight plateau. Not wishing to add any pressure, but your fun commentary on life in general has been missed :-P. Perhaps we could institute a little note informing your admiring public audience of when an update has been made? Hope your summer is going really well, and you are having bunches of fun!

Barry Blogreader

My sincerest apologies for taking so long in updating... I hope you can all forgive me :)

Life has been crazy!! My wisdom teeth were successfully extracted (thanks for all the encouragement and prayers!) and after a few drug-induced, chipmunk days, I'm fully recovered... well except for the gaping holes in the back of my mouth that keep stealing all my food!! (yuck, i know!)

Last week I started my summer internship. It's a pretty sweet deal: I'm volunteering for my church, specifically my dad who is the "building expansion pastor", helping manage the buidling of our church's first facility. The cool part is that I'm being paid by Cornell (since my church is a non-profit and I'm volunteering) So, I have an all-expenses-paid summer (including all the ice-cream I can eat!!) and "expected summer income replacement". Nice, huh? So these past two weeks I've just been following my dad around and trying to get a handle on everything that's happening. I've got to walk through the building, which is in the middle of construction. They broke ground in the last summer and are supposed to finish in late November. It's a fun job... lots of lunch meetings (and occasionaly breakfast and dinner too!) and I get to wear a hard-hat!! In fact I think I'm going to have to order my own hard-hat soon ;)

So... my brother is getting married on Saturday. THIS saturday. It's pretty crazy, but of course exciting as well. These past few weeks have been filled with wedding craziness. Last week we finally finished the programs... I must have spent 5 or more hours helping Diane (my brother's fiance) and she even did more work on her own!! Nobody better even dare throw them away after the ceremony. They should be taken home and framed. Lol, but they really are very classy, as the rest of the wedding will surely be. I'm mostly excited for the reception... jumbo shrimp, crab cakes, filet mignon, and CAKE! Yum. And lots of dancing too... and hopefully champagne!!

So anyways, that's pretty much what's new in my life. The other night the girls and I decided to get all dolled up in our prom dresses for a night on the town:

prom - take2!

prom - take2!

prom - take2!

prom - take2!

It was fun... and so crazy to think that an entire year has passed since prom. It feels like yesterday!

Alright, I must go get ready... the bachelorette party is in an hour!! I promise I'll write more as soon as all of this wedding hoop-la has passed, but this will have to do for now!

~erica

trying to sleep...

2005-05-25T22:30:00.000-05:00

I can't sleep.

I'm getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow morning at 8am and I am scared beyond belief. Not for the pain.... that would make sense. For the IV. I'm petrified. In fact, I feel gross just thinking about it right now. The mere thought of a needle makes my arms feel wobbly. I HATE needles. I told the doctor that I wanted him to numb my arm first so I wouldn't feel the prick... he told me to grow up. Some doctor, huh? My mom keeps telling me I just need to think about something else, but that's easier said then done. But I'm trying...

Being home has been nice. I mostly enjoy sleeping in and having absolutely nothing to do. Not that I've done nothing, I've actually been quite busy. But I haven't HAD to do anything. And it's been wonderful to see friends from high school. Although, I must admit, things just aren't the same. Everyone's gone off to different places and had vastly different experiences. It's weird because, as much as I want to, you just can't pick up where you left off. I'm not the same girl I was a year ago. Not that I never changed in high school -- of course I did. It's just that before, we all changed together. We went through the same things, and we went through them together. But now it's all changed. The ways that I grew and changed at Cornell are nothing compared to the ways in which my friends did. Not that that ruins our friendship, it doesn't at all. It just means that we need to take things a little slower... not take things for granted so much... not assume that everything will be just as it always was. It's weird when I have to get to know my best friend all over again. I'm sure things will be wonderful in a few weeks, it just takes time I guess.

So, my brother gradutated on Sunday. He and his fiance. Who are getting married in about three weeks. Talk about craziness! He's only 2 1/2 years older than me!! I'm quite excited for the wedding :) It's going to be lovely... quite classy. And hopefully there'll be lots of champagne --wink-wink--

Alright, my laundry just buzzed. I should go fold that and get some sleep. Pray for me tomorrow... and feel free to come visit and bring me lots of yummy treats!! (well, anything that can be slurped that is!)

Nighty night,

erica

3... more... days...

2005-05-15T22:26:00.000-05:00

Three days 'til home. Unfortunately, there are two exams in the way.

So I saw this bumper sticker today:

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." -Aristotle

I like that. A lot. I think we all, myself included... especially included, could do that a little more. A lot more.

So, in preparation of my upcoming oral surgery (may 26th!) I've started a list of movies I must see. Feel free to help add to the list! And if you're going to be around SP, feel free to come watch with me (and bring ice cream too!!)

Collateral
Finding Neverland
Garden State
I Heart Huckabees
Love Actually
Meet The Fockers
Million Dollar Baby
Sixteen Candles
When Harry Met Sally

So my friend is absolutely obsessed with the late Mitch Hedburg. I like Mitch a lot. But I'm pretty sold on Brian Regan. I go back and forth. So, in light of my recent debate over who I like better, I thought I'd host a little face-off with some of my favorite quotes...

Mitch: "I got to write these jokes. So, I sit at the hotel at night and I think of something that's funny. Or, If the pen is too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of wasn't funny."

Brian: "I'm just trying to go through life without looking stupid... it's not working out too well..."

"Rice is great when you're hungry and want 2,000 of something."

"I don't know when to say the 'you too' phrase... i can't handle it. I never learn, you know... like a waitress will bring my meal: 'hey, enjoy your meal!' 'you too!!... oh, you don't have one do you? I'm a doofus! If you do have one, enjoy it when you eat it, if you have a break or something... later... if you get an opportunity... that's all I'm trying to say! That's all that I'm driving at. Really. If you think about it. That's all.'"

"I went to a restaurant and I ordered a chicken sandwich, but I don't think the waitress heard me 'cause she asked how I'd like my eggs. So I tried answering her anyways. "INCUBATED! Then hatched, then raised, then beheaded, then plucked, then cut up, then put onto a grill, then put onto a bun. Dang, it's gonna take a while. I don't have the time. Scrambled!"

"You ever start to say something and then in the middle of what you're saying you decide to say something else completely? You know there's already words out there? ...These friends were leaving the other day and I started to say 'Hey, take care!' and I decided to say 'good luck' instead like halfway through, you know? So it came out neither. 'See you later, take... luck... take luck and care... take care of the luck... good luck taking care of the luck that you might have... if you have luck, take it... care for it... TAKE LUCK CARE OF IN IT WHEN YOU TAKE CARE...' ...you're sure to see them again."

"I bought a doughnut and they gave me a receipt for the doughnut. I don't need a receipt for the doughnut - I'll just give you money and you give me the doughnut. End of transaction. We don't need to bring ink and paper into this. I can't imagine a scenario in which I would need to prove that I bought a doughnut. Some skeptical friend? "Don’t even act like I didn't buy a doughnut, I've got the documentation right here. Oh wait, it's back home in the file... under 'D', for doughnut."

"I'm always putting my foot in my mouth. I don't stop to think. It's just like 'oh no, words are coming out!' ...Like I met this woman the other day and I could have sworn she was preganant. Let me tell you... --ooohhs from the audience-- I know now! I think the rule is don't guess at that ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever evereverevereverever... something like that. I didn't have enough 'evers' memorized. So I said, 'hey, when's that baaaby due?' You ever feel a word coming out but it's too late to stop it? It's coming out loud: 'Hey when's that BABY due... BAAABBBY' 'What baby?' --gasps-- 'At the zoo! The pandas! I heard they're trying to have one... I just um, you know, thought we'd talk about it.'

"Whenever I walk, people try to hand me out flyers. And when someone tries to hand me out a flyer, it's kinda like they're saying, 'Here — you throw this away.'"

"Have you ever guessed somebody's gender wrong? There's no recovering from that. You just gotta move on, 'cause you ain't wriggling out of nothing. 'Excuse me sir? MAAM. Ok, ok, bye! Bye human... bye person... nice to meet you individual!'"

"I don't have a girlfriend. I just know this lady who'd be really mad if she heard me say that."

That last one's my personal favorite :) I just don't know. They both make me laugh so hard it hurts!! What do you think?

Oh right... I just remembered... I'm suppossed to be studying!!

ciao!
-erica

Oh dad...

2005-05-14T15:14:00.000-05:00

So my dad has been emailing back and forth with Elizabeth's dad in order to arrange a ride for Elizabeth next week. I checked my email last night, and there was a copy of this message that my dad sent Mr. Eichling:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Brian Mallare
To: Peter Eichling
Subject: The Company We Keep

Dear Pete...

Really! Can't you talk some sense into your daughter about the
boy she's seeing? This guy is such a pig!

...A Concerned Dad

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haha. Oh dad, what am I ever going to do with you :)

it's beginning to smell a lot like... SPRING!

2005-05-12T00:56:00.000-05:00

So yesterday when I walked out my front door, I smelled spring!! You know... that smell when the air is warm, the sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and the grass is green! It was incredible. Spring finally made it to Ithaca! Of course now, just because I said this, the high for tomorrow is forcasted to be just above 50. Of course. Well, it was nice for the two days it lasted. It really is unfortunate that the nicest weather in Ithaca comes during the summer when school's out. Who's idea was that!?

I saw these pretty flowers while I was walking on campus today :)

flowers

They really are beautiful... and they're everywhere too! However, the flowers and I are not exactly on good terms right now. Mainly because they are making my life miserable :*( My spring allergies are just about as horrible as they could possibly be. (I shouldn't have said that... now I've really done myself in...) Today I completely gave up and laid on my bed for a good hour with a wash cloth on my face as I cried to my mom over the phone. She, on the other hand, was lying on the beach in South Carolina. Somehow my pleas for her to come here and take care of me weren't exactly effective.

--sigh--

I hate this whole growing up thing. Sometimes you just need your mom, you know? It's like that book... "I'll Love You Forever"... you know, the one that every mom buys for their kid 'cause it makes them cry... yeah, that one. I just need my mom to crawl in my window right now and sit by my bed and rock me to sleep...

only a few more days.

I'm off to bed... Goodnight all... sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite :)

e~marie

pink!

2005-05-09T00:15:00.000-05:00

Have I ever told you that I love the color pink? Well, I do :)

A friend of mine showed me these barbie usb drives! I gotta get me one of those. I really think they're on to something there... no seriously! I mean, technology in general isn't very attractive to women. It's a very sexist industry. Honestly, I think I'd be more likely to buy any sort of technological gadget if it were pretty (and especially if it were pink :) ) Take this laptop for example. I mean, it's a little over the top, but still, very cute. So you see, there is a whole market here that no one has tapped in to! Someday (when I'm working for google ;) ) I'll become rich and famous by creating a new line of technological products designed especially for women.

So I figured out the other day that I can post audio clips on my blog via cellphone. That's pretty much incredible. I can't think of when I'd ever really need it... well maybe if I was being attacked and needed to be rescued I could call and post a help message and, since there are so many of you who check this blog religiously, someone would undoubtedly come to help me within seconds. But other than that, I'm not so sure if I'll ever use it. But just for fun, I'll show you how it works...you'll have to turn the volume up to hear it since it's not great quality:

The first time I heard that song I was at a key elements a cappella concert. I loved it so I of course went home and downloaded it. And then, in true erica fashion, I listened to it incessantly for weeks on end. So then, just a few weeks ago, my friend amanda and I were at a dance concert and one of the numbers was to this song. Long story short, after much discussion, Amanda informed me that this song is really all about sex. Now I know you're all probably like, 'duh!' but I seriously had no idea! I always thought it was about the color pink! No seriously, I really did!

So what I want to know is why everyone finds it so necessary (and possibly even amusing) to taint me. For example, just last week I was told that Maroon 5's song 'This Love' is really all about sex too. I honestly thought they meant 'come back' as in 'to return'. Think about it... they might have meant that!

Ok fine. I loose. You know what other song they ruined for me? Crash. By Dave Matthews Band. I always thought that it is about souls colliding. But no. It's all about sex they say.

--sigh--

What is this world coming to.

Alright, I'm off to bed. My neighbor just im-ed me to say "What are you still doing up!? It's way past your bedtime!!" Lol... sadly true.

'til we meet again,

erica

Happy Slope Day!

2005-05-06T20:25:00.000-05:00

We made it!! Finally all done with classes :)

Today was wonderful... the Cornell weather machine was right on schedule... warm and sunny for slope day! It was really beautiful outside, but i must say, if this weather keeps up this whole 'studying' thing is not going to go over well!

So, this afternoon I went to a pig roast! Mmmmmm.

pig

Elizabeth was especially fond of the little piggie :)

After that we headed down to the slope for the festivites. Man was that crazy!

slope

Kinda reminiscent of the creation music festival (well, not as big or as amazing, but still cool!) We were trying to guess how many people were there... 5,000 maybe? I especially enjoyed the free 'vanizzle shizzle' ice cream in honor of snoop :) Elizabeth & I got free tatoos too...

tatoos

...scandalous, I know! :-o

We were also trying to guess the percentage of intoxicated persons on the slope. I said 75% but everyone else said 90%... well they were also all 'crunked' at the time, so who knows... i thought maybe that'd prove me right, but i realize now that maybe that just proves them right!

Anyways, it was really quite enjoyable! Although I still only know one Snoop Dogg song though! (and that's only from hearing Julie sing it!)

So now to complete this celebration, I've ordered DP Dough for dinner! Yum. A true Cornell tradition ;)

'til next time...

...e

sleepy...

2005-05-05T22:50:00.000-05:00

I'm feeling very sleepy right now...

I just started this new medicine for my allergies and it's making me feel perpetually groggy. Yay. I've taken two naps today already, and it's only 11:30 and I'm ready for bed.

So tonight I had my last field hockey practice...

field hockey

...we're kinda scraggly lookin', but we're pretty darn good (if i do say so myself... which i do :) ) and that's what really counts, i think.

So many lasts, it's enough to make a girl cry. Last practice, last lunch, last class, last paper... last CS assignment!! (ok those last few aren't sad at all...)
It's wierd that this year is practically over... I feel like we just moved in yesterday! I've decided I'm going to protest moving out. This is my house. They can't just give it to someone else. I think I'll chain myself to my bed... or make that the refridgerator (a girl's gotta eat!) So who's with me?

So I started reading this book,
Black, by Ted Dekker. It's pretty interesting, albeit a little intense. I'm at that "should I keep reading or throw in the towel" point. Has anyone read it?

Not that I should be reading, I 'should' be studying. But well, we all know how that goes.

Alright, my eyes are drooping and my bed is calling...

Night y'all,

e

pictures

2005-05-04T23:52:00.000-05:00

So I've now discovered how to put pictures on my blog...

For those of you who check my blog religiously (I know you're out there) you've probably noticed that I've changed my profile picture like a bajillion times. The thing is, I just can't decide on a picture. I like this one I have now though. I took it this morning :) We'll see how long it lasts...

Tonight was our first Young Life Club at Ithaca High School!! It was fun... albeit there were only a handful of kids there. In order to not scare them away, "we" (i use this very loosely) decided to have the leaders get messy instead of the kids.

yl

So, as you can see, I got pied in the face. It was really quite miserable and I still smell like sour milk, but at least the kids seemed to get a pretty big kick out of it. All in all I think the club went fairly smoothly and hopefully some of the kids will sign up for camp this summer.

On the topic of pictures, if you have a few minutes, you should really look at these [login: dthomasson@comcast.net password: twinkle1] They're my brother's engagement photos... he's getting married this June... and they are incredible! The photographer, Emilie Sommer, is from Maine and she is amazing. I think I'll book her now ;)

So tonight I wrote my last paper of the semester. And only two more days of classes!! Or maybe even only one... depending on if I go on Friday. Speaking of Friday, I'm slightly perplexed by this whole slope day thing. I mean come on... snoop dog?? (Today my french teacher, in complete seriousness, called him 'snoopy'... i got quite a kick out of that) I mean, it might be cool... or it might not. I guess we'll just have to see!

Alright, I'm off to bed.

A demain,

e*marie

My first blog!

2005-05-03T21:21:00.000-05:00

Yay! I've officially entered the blogging world. I'm not exactly sure how this is going to work out... especially since I hate writing... but well, I have a paper to write tonight and I've run out of entertaining distractions and everyone else is working... so here goes nothing!

My first act as an official blogger will be to figure out how to create links. This will make my blog more interesting, in the hopes that someone will actually read it! let's see here... test

That better work considering I just got a lesson on link-creating from the master of blog links.

Now, my second act as an official blogger will be to figure out something to say. I'm a firm believer that if you are going to write a blog, you should only do so if you have something to say. Not that it has to be interesting, or even accurate, but it just has to be... something.

So...
on to something...
(give me a break... it's my first time!!)

I'm quite excited that school is almost done. 3 more days of classes! I'm so ready for summer... No more stupid math problem sets where I write down the question and then copy the answer from the back of the book... and no more essays!! Today I bought a shirt that says "Cornell Engineering: where your best hasn't been good enough since 1870" So true, so true.

But honestly, I am a little sad to be leaving my friends here... (no comments from the peanut gallery please)... its definitely going to be a weird transition.

Other things I will miss...
-Wednesday bread bowls at Trillium... last one tomorrow :*(
-Late night snuggle parties
-Complaining about the weather (seriously... I was thinking about how empty our conversations would be if we refrained from discussing the weather completely... it would be ridiculous)
-Swing dancing! ...and insane swing email extravaganzas that last until the wee hours of the morning so that I wake up and find my inbox cluttered with 50+ emails!

Ok, I need to stop reminiscing before I cry.

I just realized that this whole blogging-thing does not provide spell-check... that may be a problem.

Oh wait... nevermind... it does. I just found it :)

I also just realized that blogging might actually be the number one cause of ADD.

On another note, I decided today that I need to somehow find a way to get a job with google because they are going to take over the world. If you don't believe me, watch this. Kinda creepy... but probably true... so google here I come!

Alright, I should probably at least pretend to do some work. I think I made out alright for my first official blog, didn't I?

'til tomorrow--

--e