Pictures from lunch with Klotilde

Pictures: just tuesday w Auralia & Domitille

And now it is jeudi...

Thursday.
Tomorrow's my last day at school. :_( I'm so exhausted. I'm a little sick, too.

This afternoon I went to M Fournier's bureau to ask about buying a gym tshirt and to talk about getting my papers filled out. I gave them to him at the beginning of last week.
The gym teacher gave me the tshirt for free, it was very generous. The English teacher came to help translate some things on the papers... It was all very formal.

I picked up some little cake things on my way home tonight... We're getting ready to go out for dinner.
More later <3
xoxo

Wednesday with Klotilde and Francois

Wednesday I got out of school at noon and walked with Klotilde to her apartment
not far from the school.
Her apartment is really cute, and she's got three younger brothers and a younger sister from her mother's second marriage. They are SOOOO cute! Soloman drew me a picture :D He's... three or four. The middle boy asked me where I learned to speak English. ^.^ i was overwhelmed with adoration.
Her mom was really nice and really welcoming, she used to live in the states with Klotilde when she was younger. The whole family is Vegan, and we had goat cheese pizza, spinach salad, and some kind of olive pate on bread. And a kings cake and cider afterwards. I got the prize and got to wear the crown!!!
Klotilde's mother gave me a jar of honey from the place in France where her father is from and a box of chocolates for my family. She was so nice!
Klotilde and I ended up being really late to meet Francois at the school, but we got there :P Matheo and Emerson ended up not coming bc something at school, but K, F and I went to some weird semi underground greenhouse/maze type mall. It was crazy. We ate ice cream and gawked at ugly shoes.

K that about raps it up for this post...
xoxo

Indian food and missing metro stops

One of Fabrice's brothers was with an African princess (yes, I'm serious) in his first marriage, thus we have Auralia. Then someone else did something else with someone else, thus we have Domitille.
Tuesday night Auralia and Domitille came to the apartment to pick me up about 6.30, RIGHT as Obama's speech was finishing. It was phenomenal.
Anway, then we took the metro to a district in northern Paris and ate at a superb Indian place. I ate something with lamb... So I got to know both of them reasonably well, they were really great company, really funny and out going and they both spoke english well enough that we could converse the whole time. Domitille went to a university in the states for a year ( i think ) a while ago, and Auralia learned in school.
After we ate we walked around to Auralia's friend who worked at a bar nearby, no luck, so we went somewhere else and hung out.
We met a group of Parisien college guys who were really hysterical. One could speak english pretty well and really wanted to speak english with us lol
We also met a big group of German models (I know...) that were accompanying a guy who was the manager and somethingorother of three bands in Germany. They had come to sign some agreement... It was really cool.
Anyway, it was a really good time. A lot of people asked me about Obama lol I've been getting a lot of that here...

K, more soon!
xoxo
ps
ill put up some pictures i took in the metro station, they're funny. we missed our stop and got really lost...

Etretat- la plage

Going to the beach was a life changing experience.

It was a little village that we stayed in, pretty touristy (but kind of vacant because of the season) because of the famous cliffs along the shore. It's down in a little valley in between really magnificent, tall hills. There is a golf course on one side and a super old church on the other. We first arrived and went out onto the beach. It was FUH-REEZING. And it was high tide. we walked along the beach for a while and then drove up the golf course side of the valley to our hotel which had a PHENOMENAL view of the entire town and the cliffs, too. From the hotel we hiked up the cliffs and saw everything... so wonderful. And tiring!
Then it was back to the hotel so the kids could shower.
Then we went to dinner at a hotel restaurant in the town which was in a really cool old house. It was really strange looking amongst all the buildings that were so similar looking.

Sorry nothing is in great detail, I'm really exhausted.

After dinner I took a solo walk along the beach. Sounds fun, right? Well at the time it seemed like the most difficult walk of my life. It was glorious. I first stepped beyond the buildings and the wind was so strong that both my scarf and my purse flew away form me in an instant and i was off running after them. The freezing cold was crazy... But I did it. And I stopped several times just to look at the ocean...
It was funny to think that so far across that ocean was my family sleeping in a house without me. It was just weird. I had Rufus Wainwright stuck in my head :P

Then to bed.
I got up ultra early this morning (the next morning) to walk up the cliffs to see the town illuminate. It was already about 7.30 and I didn't see a single soul in the town. I thought I was the only person alive. It had rained, so the path up the cliffs was muddy and rocky. I only made it to the first landing because it was so cold and so windy. I drew a picture for Shelly :) After a while I walked down through the village and looked at all the architecture and houses on the hills.
I got back to the room at about 9am and took a hot bath before meeting the family in the breakfast room for baguette and nutella and jus d'orange.

We drove along and saw a few other little beach cities and walked along the beach in several places. It was really magnificent.
Lunch was at a creperie in a beach town. SO delicious. I can't even express :P

Then we came back home. I'm exhausted now, so I'll put up pics and stuff tomorrow.


Love you all.
xoxoxo
ciao

Le Marais

Le Marais is a neighborhood in Paris near where Brigitte and Fabrice live here in the 12th district. It's called many things, but mostly it's the Jewish neighborhood of Paris. There are no restaurants open Saturdays for the Sabbath, and the whole area is restricted to pedestrians on Sundays.
I went here with Klotilde Saturday morning before I left with the family around 2 pm for Etretat.

Things I learned about Klotilde:
-her father lives a two hour drive into some kind of forest reservation in Washington state, has four children who she doesn't know(one of which travels the world as a belly dancer), and makes jewelry. She hasn't seen her father in 11 years and he wants her to move to the states next year and sends her shoes in the mail.
-her mother was a model in her youth and now has four other children besides Klotilde.
-Klotilde is vegan, and that's why she goes home every day for lunch.
-the nuns at Sainte Clotilde pay her tuition.
-she listens to Blondie and the Beatles.
-she is my french soul mate.


She took me all over the neighborhood and showed me THE coolest vintage and discount shops. They are all tiny and packed full of people, ultra weird french clothing items from as early as the thirties.
I bought:
-white leather healed boots
-three shirts for 3€
-some presents for friends' birthdays
-some crazy vampire tshirt
-THE COOLEST faux fur super vintage-y purse that I am currently mending for school in the morning...
-i really chic jacket (10€!!)



We were walking down the streets at about 10.30 waiting for things to open (at 11.00) and I saw about four policemen on horses (whoa!) so i was being really touristy and ran after them to take pictures. Anyway, when I was finished we turned to keep walking and this elderly man who is trying to open a gigantic door in some mystery building says something to us (too fast for me to understand). Klotilde starts translating but then the guy asks me in English if I wanted to see a really old building that he has been working on renovating (he's an architect). I assume this is because I was acting touristy...
Anyway, why not? So he gets the giant door open and starts telling us he's been working on this building for two years against the laws of the city of Paris. He says there are super old buildings everywhere that the city wants to destroy and make commercial buildings, but he's been fixing them and selling them to the public on his own for years. He said he'd worked out of TX for a while and this and that and then told us that the president of France noticed his work and really liked it, so now the city of Paris can't sue him for what he's done.
Dunno if any of it is true, but it was really beautiful and there was a nice garden inside. Don't worry mom, I stayed close to the door :P

For lunch we ate the most delicious falafel. They must not have been real Jews to have their shop open on a Saturday... There was no seating inside so we walked around to a little playground outside a church nearby. We fed the birds when we were through :)

Demain Matin: Le Marais + Gift!!

I was talking with a friend about going to le marais dimanche apres je retourne de la plage, mais it would be too late in the day. Alors, we will faisons du shopping demain matin (tomorrow morning). :D J'espere acheter un jolie sac(mon sac a mort... *tear*).

D'accord. Maintenant: dormir.


ALSO: Brigitte is so generous!! She bought me a wonderful manteau (coat). It is tres, tres chic and black and is le meme style que tous les filles portent :D J'aime ca. It's longer than the one I have now, and warmer, too. She got a really cute one for Juliette which is shorter and blanche. Now we almost match !


I added all of my french school friends on facebook last night and tonight. Tonight at almost the exact same time I got SEVEN chat windows pop up, four of them from les gens francais, three from americans. Talk about confusing! French slang is ridiculous.

LOL : MDR : : laugh out loud : mort de rire



C'est tout maintenant.
I meet at the Marais at 10 am, then off to la plage!


NOTE: This may be the last post until Sunday evening.



xoxoxoxo
susie

Made new friends.

*kids form a ridiculously huge line from outside in the courtyard to the main lobby area down a flight of stairs, through another lobby area and to the lunch line every day.
Today I was in line and everyone was being rather violent, pushing and shoving and whatnot... i was with the girls in my class, and behind me were four students: two girls whose names I can't remember, Francois, and Emerson. Francois is a gay Italian and Emerson is considered american, even though he only goes to the states 2 months out of the year. The two girls are very nice and I like them a lot. I ended up eating lunch with that group instead of the girls in my class. They were a little more interesting :P also, it was nice having Emerson translate. He speaks english like an american and french like a native.
Apparently the girls I usually hang out with are pretty straight laced... I got all the drug dealers and class-skippers pointed out to me by Francois :P
I was also surprised to find out that even though it's a private school, there are a lot of kids who have failed grades.

I was walking around the courtyard with the guys and one of them showed me a video of Emerson in a street hip hop competition. Who knew?? And he won.

What else... My acrylic nails are falling off. It's sad.

OH. Not going out tonight, Auralia has to work until 10pm, so we'll go out next week, maybe Tuesday.
Some kids i met at school today are having a party Sunday I think, but i'll have just gotten back from the coast.
Klotilde wants to throw a party maybe wednesday. She said she wanted to have one before I leave :)

Klotilde is a really sweet girl. if you look at my last picture from the cinema, she's the tallest on the left. She listens to Blondie and the Beatles and shops at second hand stores. Pretty great.



oops K I'll finish later.

xoxoxo
ciao

Twilight

Today I woke up at looked at the clock. It was 10.30 and I had plans to meet the girls at the school (less than 5 min walk) at 11.15. If you know me you know it takes a minimum of :
-20 minutes to choose what to wear,
-10 minutes to blow dry my hair,
-5 minutes to choose shoes and a jacket,
-10 minutes to lotion and makeup,
-5 minutes to eat
and that all puts me out the door 5 minutes after everyone had met at the school. AAGGHH!!!


The movie: Twilight. Ok, I'm not into vampire/sci-fi stuff at all, but I wanted to cry all the way through this movie. Oh, and it was in English!! (french subtitles)

K here are the pics from outside the theater after the movie:

(I'm talking in this one.)I promise they're much happier than they look :P

pictures from last night

I took this stopped at a light on the scooter

every fridya night people go roller skating all over the city

more skaters


champs elysees

eiffel tower

:)

One Blink and My Heart Wasn't There

What every 16 year old girl should do:
-ride on the back of a motorcycle the length of the louvre, down the famous boulevards of Paris, France, 10.00pm, and witness the City of Lights in all it's beaming glory.

The city sparkles at night, the buildings go blurry if you stare too long because they're lit up so bright. The Eiffel Tower, and City Hall, the Grand Palais, Champs Elysees, the churches and schools and museums and theaters and restaurants and apartments and gardens and cemeteries and metro stations and shopping malls and luxury stores and markets and monuments and statues and -- I never want to leave. But I want you all here. Come here! :) The people are so much nicer and the food is better and .. you'll see. I wish i could show it all with my eyes or with words.

Suddenly I'm bright and breezy, because of all the beautiful and new things I'm learning about you, day by day. wow that's not what I was trying to type. I'm listening to that song on youtube :)

The ballet we saw tonight was the most interesting thing I've seen on stage. It was interpretive and bazaar... projected behind the dancers was a scream with abstract people diving into a pool and.. being abstract and swimming and being happy, and some of them were naked and then the dancers on stage appeared on the screen with the swimming people and then their was a sand castle and... it was weird. i loved it.

Beforehand we went to dinner in the building the theater is in and there was a MAGNIFICENT view of the Eiffel Tower. Every hour for 5 minutes it lights up and sparkles. It's magical.

I get to sleep in tomorrow. I meet the girls at the school at 11.15 so we can get lunch before the movie at 12.15. I accidentally confused everyone today when I asked which theater it would be at... They all looked at me and said, "no, we're going to a movie" (except in french) and i said yeah, which theater? Turns out they call it the cinema.


I really want to come back to France soon so I can see the rest of Europe. I really want to see Italy. And the south of France, the islands where Brigitte's parents live. She told me Monaco was near there. I have to see Monaco before I die, it's on my list. I really want to see London, too. Not that I couldn't live in Paris for the rest of my life and never see everything... But the kids at school tell me such great things about other places. They're all bored with Paris. How does that happen???


Anywho, more later. I'm going to bed.

xox- OH, pictures. here. pictures take a long time to resize and rotate...



just the view from the balcony at the apartment. im too tired to resize the ones from tonight. they'll be upp soon.

Whoops.

Forgot to include the pictures...



looking out on the large outside area (down)

The only lockers in the school (down)

Everyone leaving (down)

Juliette just after school (down)

I wish I could remember all their names... Gorgeous french people. (down)

[pretend my eyes are open]

After school being excited abt the chocolate I bought.

Pretend my eyes are open.

I got out of school today at one oclock and tried to take a few pictures... My eyes are closed in one. Oops!

Gym- was outside, we played frisbee, my pants were too long and got soaked bc it had been raining... and my shoes were drenched for the rest of the day. I'll know better next time.

Music- they were learning the history of rock and talked about country and blues... the kids played on a drumset. it was fun.

Francais- We did an exercise with subject-verb agreement and Clotilde checked my answers and I GOT THEM ALL RIGHT!! yay me :D

After school I went with some of the boys to a little grocery type store and we bought sodas and chocolate... then we talked about something or other and now I'm here, at the apartment.

That's all for now.
xoxoxoxo

Quelque Chose Rigolo/ Goodnight

*At the end of the school day when the bell rang and we were dismissed kids were walked around and the boy who's been talking to me so much came up and said something about seeing me tomorrow and then did the french-goodbye-kissy thing, and it was so funny, my first reaction of course is to punch any guy who tries to kiss me, right? Ugh, I was SO close to punching this poor boy in the face. He's really tall though...

Anyway, fin de l'histoire rigolo.

National Tell Susie She's Pretty Day

By now everyone in the school knows I'm here, and I'm getting stares in the hallway haha

Classes were good, I didn't understand much except for in math (geometry) and in SVT (biology) and in English. Duh.

I talked to M. Fournier after school today about the paperwork that would need to be filled out and I think I was very polite and very appreciative... He asked how I was doing in the English class and if I was helping and I told him I was.

The kids are really funny, they keep asking me if I like this one boy who is always talking to me. I told them he was 'forward' and parce que je ne sais pas comment dit-on ca en francais, they looked it up in a dictioary, and apparently it's something negative in french. I kept trying to say that he was a very nice boy, and kept saying that I like everyone, but I think his feelings were hurt a little. Everyone else was laughing though, so I guess it could be worse.

I was walking outside with my friends after lunch and I was leading the group and this large group of very tall boys came up directly in front of me in this busy hallway with lost of loud people laughing and one boy came forward and started talking in Spanish? idk. But then he said something in french and I responded and he says, "Oh, you're american!" And then started talking to me in english, the group still totally blocking off the hallway. He said I was pretty and this and that and something about the other boys watching me... it was a little confusing. :P

The kids in Juliette's class are nice also, they all talk to me and are very attentive and curious about everything american.

I didn't have a class this afternoon, so I thought I would go sit in the quiet library and type up some journals. That's what I thought... haha I got there and Juliette introduced me before she went to her class, and turns out the librarian has a son in NC and a daughter in NY and spoke english, and really wanted to speak with me :P And then some kids came in and started asking about where I was from, was my laptop real, can we carry guns in the US, can we drive, have I been to California, New York, Florida, where do I live, can I point it out on a map... So I didn't get much done :P

Yesterday when I first went into my class the first thing I saw was this beautiful, beautiful person. Glowing with beauty. It's this boy with some very french, very eloquent name... the most perfect looking person I've ever seen, and he's always smiling and talks to me sometimes. I thought his perfection was worth noting...

Anyway, I have my first gym class tomorrow, and a music class also. I get out of school at noon- YAY! maybe Ill have some time out of school to hang out with some kids. I'm excited about the ballet tomorrow night and about going to the movies Jeudi :D

More later.
xoxoxoxoxoxo
susie

p.s. night mom!

I miss you all and i love you.
xoxo
susie


Kisssssss. <3

And those are my tonsils.

Je Vais Aller...

Wednesday- the ballet at 8.30 with Brigitte and Fabrice

Thursday- teacher work day, I got invited to see Twilight with some of the girls in my class.

Friday- I will go out with Auralia. I do not know where ^.^

Saturday/Sunday- Go to the West Coast, see the ocean. Maybe something else, I do not know.

Fashion

Girls all wear jeans or other casual pants with sweaters. Everyone wears sweaters.
Everyone has heavy jackets that are printed with some geometric designs, but they take them off in class, too...
Not a lot of jewelry...
A lot of the girls were wearing moccasin type boots with tassels around the top... it was kinda weird. Some tennis shoes, also.

Sam is singing in the shower :D

Boys wear jeans and zip up jackets... tennis shoes... all very european, though.

k that's all for now.

First Day of School

I went with Juliette at school at 8.30 am bc school starts for her class at nine.
My classes will actually start at eight... I am taking Spanish, history, english, physics, francais, latin, mathematiques, PE... je ne sais pas. Beaucoup. I think I spoke pretty well with my classmates, but now I am exhausted. I think I made friends with the smart kids :D two of the girls speak pretty good english and help when I get stuck. None of the teachers really recognized me except when I was first introduced and when I went to History with Mme Putet qui est my adviser. I don't talk much with any of the adults...

Surprises:
*there is a lot of pushing and shoving in the hallways
*there is a lot of talking and moving around in class
*there is sliced cheese at lunch!
*everyone eats yogurt at lunch
*there are 9 one hour classes (well, 55 mins) and two 20 minute breaks and one 15 minute break.
*teachers share classrooms a lot
*there are 900 kids in the school
*we go outside and walk aroung during all of the breaks ( COLD!)

in the english class we watched Friends, which was really fun. I had actually already seen the episode we watched...

There was a boy who usually sat a little behind me who talked to me all the time... He offered me his coat when we took our first break and was very persistent... I think he said some vulgar things in french :P but i'm not totally sure. The girls told me to tell him to shut up haha
The girl who helped me the most was Clautide (sp?) and she spoke pretty good english and gave me her phone number in case I have any questions.


I'm so tired I can hardly think of what to say. I'll be going to bed early tonight...


Oh, and i wore some pink shoes today that KILLED my feet. And I underdressed... i didnt think we would be outside so much, and i froze. but im pretty good at acting warm when im cold so it was ok :)


I think everyone thought I was stupid, speaking is so hard... i could usually understand people and know what I wanted to say, but the words just wouldn't come out. Good thing they've all been taking english for a couple years.

what else...
Mme Putet said something during class like that the boys were glad I was here and then everyone started talking haha i think it was good things...
I spent the first hour with Juliette's class and it was fun. They were learning how cars and airplanes work...



k im tired. Ask me questions and I'll respond <3

King's Day

today was great.

We all slept in a bit and then about 12.30 drove to Fabrice's father(Daddy)'s place, on the north west side of Paris. We are on the south east side :P
Brigitte and Fabrice told me about the cars and traffic...
Did you know...?
*you can't get your license til you're 18
*it's against the law to drive faster than the people in the left hand lane
*there are automatic machines to check your speed and take a picture of your license plate if you're speeding

We got to the apartment and I met Fabrice's two brothers and their wives and their children. Brigitte pokes fun at Fabrice saying that the men in his family all have big eyebrows haha. All of the children are Juliette and Sam's ages except Auralia (oh-ray-uh) who is 20 and the daughter of the oldest brother from his first marriage with an African princess. Not joking.
Auralia offered to come take me out on the town Friday night because she has finished her exams. She speaks very good english. !!
The other
brother has a five year old and a four month old. I LOVE BABIES! They're cute and smiley and can't judge how well I can speak french. :D
After the meal we started dessert, and then the (what is referred to in the states as) King's Cake was brought out, and the five year old boy got the baby in his piece :) it was delicious.

It was also a Christmas celebration, so after dessert and cheese the kids all opened presents. I even had a couple! I recieved a beautiful picture book showing all the historic and beautiful places in Paris, and it has english and french subtitles. Also, Brigitte boguht me a really pretty watch (the picture at the top) since I forgot to bring one. Before we left, Fabrice's father gave me a box of gingerbread cookies <3

it's really late and my first day of school is tomorrow, so I'll write more later.



xoxo
ciao

Bday party? I think not.

I just finished climbing six flights of stairs to the apartment. It is about 1.30am here.

Tonight after Baya left we drove off towards Lu & Zoe's house, the two 10 yr olds whose birthday it is. Unfortunately, there was a protest going on (about the situation in Isreal) in the square we were to pass through, and it got really violent and the traffic was so bad it took us almost an hour to get to the party...

We got to the building and Brigitte explained that they live in an apartment on the top of a school building (which made it difficult to get past the security gate and into the elevator...). There is a beautiful view, you can see the eiffel tower and montmartre...

So we walk in the door and this parade of waist tall children flood the doorway and everyone starts kissing everyone else... a very lovely thing to do, but I had no idea it was coming :P
Fabrice was one of two men, and I caught on pretty soon that the parents of the girls were lesbian. Brigitte explained pretty early on that most of the couples were lesbian and that Fabrice was usually the only man at their parties.

Everyone sang and danced and drank champagne and wine all night, and it was about 12.30 before we left, I think.

The kids all played outside on the large terrace, there was a good amount of snow.

*Did you know artificial insemination is illegal in France? I had no idea...
*also, protesters in Paris pull up the rail things from around the bottoms of trees to use as weapons against the police.
*also, french soldiers patrol heavily popular areas like shopping malls and the Eiffle Tower bc terrorist attacks pre 9/11


k its about 2am now so i'm gonna go to bed. we leave tomorrow at noon to go to Fabrice's father's place for a King's Day celebration.

xoxoxo

a few photos Brigitte took

VERSAILLES:
Hall of Mirrors

A very small portion of the garden outside.

Behind us is a piece of modern artwork by an american artist.

Outside walking in the garden.

EIFFEL TOWER:
We couldn't go to the very top, this picture was taken where we stopped.

<3

We took the elevator going down.

Baya, Susie, Sam, Juliette

On a frozen lake.

At the apartment after the Eiffel Tower