He's just not that into you... ;)

The title of this blog entry is the title of a book that was highly recommended to me. One of the author's used to write episodes for my favorite TV series S&TC. It's pretty much a self-help book. I have only read two self-help books in my life. My first was when I was a tween and trying to figure out why my body was looking all funky...LMAO. I'm so glad I'm not a teenager anymore LOL!!! Anyway, the second one was when I was in high school. It was, The 7Habits of Highly Effective Teens, at least that's what I think it was called. I read it for a leadership class.

In this new dating help book, I found one chapter really useful. It helped me with something that I had been holding on to for awhile. I'm still not done with the book, but so far it just states the obvious, which I guess is hard to see when one is going through the situation. He's Just Not That Into Me...ok, next please! =) I remember that line from the Sex & The City episode LOL.
I took the bus from Montparnasse to the upper 17th. That was my first time relying on the bus and not the metro. Somehow, I believed the metro was the only effective mode of transportation in Paris. I'm obviously very wrong. I love the bus, I see the city and it doesn't smell like pee! I went to work tonight and that was cool, but I think I prefer having my EPITECH classes...I'm sensing that I'm going to quit this Spanish tutor thingy...:( Out with the old, in with the new!

Movies to watch:
La Graine et Le Mulet
The Lives of Others
Hindi Movie
La Fabrique des Sentiments

FYI: There is no word for PMS in French! LOL Ma poule, c'est ton PMS encore! LOL They need a word for PMS.

Cocktails it is!

Off to a hurried start! I show up to my appointment with Rosalie (Resident Director of CSU students in France), we went over my schedule. I wasn't very organized, but we actually accomplished a lot. She gave me my grade for my French Business class. That class was way too early and I was always a minute or two late. I would fall asleep during classes and I would only skim the chapters, but my French in class was acceptable. All of this was confirmed by my professor in his evaluation of me. I got a 13 in the class aka a B but he also said I could have done better if I would have tried harder. Ouch! Hit me where it hurts! I knew I was slacking, but I didn't want him to know that. That means he knew I had it in me and I just let it go to waste...the truth hurts. :(
Arabic class was f'in awesome as always! My professor brought dates (non, merci) and we actually learned some useful vocabulary. Afterwards I headed to work to meet my class. I had scheduled a "Cocktails" class. I stood there in the dark courtyard looking for boys looking for me. LOL Soon a few dark shadows approached me. Yuppie! My class!
A few people were absent and that sucks, but a student I had met Sunday came and that was nice of him. The rest I had never met and we set off to Rue Mouffetard to the Student Bar where all cocktails were only 4,50euro. The waiter was very rude! But we sat around and made the most of it. Of course once the Alcohol hit everyone there was quite a bit of English being spoken. The time went by really quick and everyone was really nice. One guy was just a friend tagging along and he goes to my university...yeah he was hott! LOL Nice guy too!

I think I really like this job! I wouldn't mind being a professor...=) I hope I'm not speaking too soon...:(

My soeur and I studied some Arabic, we are so smitten with the language!

If anyone has suggestions on classes I can create for my Frenchie students please let me know! My creative juices can only go so far...
I need to create three classes:
1.Culture
2.Fun
3.Reading

Thanks!

Lots of SUPER things this last week.

WATCH...

...AND LEARN!

So...I've been neglecting my blog quite a bit. This I know. I haven't found the time or energy to get around to it, until now...and even now I'm forcing myself to do it. I know it's important to me and that is why I am still here typing...
Last week I wrote about studying for finals. Well that Tuesday final didn't go so well. The professor completely changed the format of the final and I didn't study much in depth as I should have. Tuesday was also my last day at work (for the Cérisy's, family with young children) you wouldn't even know I was leaving LOL. They for once were really sweet that day. Oh the irony!!! The mom was a little mean because I didn't have a replacement for me, but honestly that is not my problem. She can find someone herself! That night my soeur and I went to Dupleix. We were standing around watching middle aged French people dance to Funk and Disco...waiting for the crowd to arrive. We stood there with all of the stares from drunken middle aged French men eyeing us. Ugh gross! We tried desperately to look like we didn't want guys to hit on us, but a brave soul thought we were out to get some and he approached us. He says to us "Are you Arab?" we say "no," and he continues to talk to us in his drunken state. We pay him no attention gets the hint and walks away. We danced the night away to memorable tunes such as "Jealousy," "I Just Want to Call You My Bitch," and "Destination Unknown." The turn out was low because most students were still finishing up their finals. We walked the three blocks back to my house with our heels squeezing our poor little toes and the shock of every step resounding in an ever aching pain!

Wednesday, I had Arabic class and we got a new book! One of those that starts from right to left, hence what I would expect to be the back of the book is really the front, ah too cool! I had a chinese lunch afterwards and the owner kept yelling at her son, it made for a an uncomfortable meal and was a very unprofessional attitude.
note:This has happened to me before. I had my favorite Italian Pizza place. I small mom&pop resto in San Jose. One afternoon, as I sat enjoying my delicious pizza in the company of my once lovely boyfriend. The owner felt the need to argue with his son about his future and not running the family business. They weren't yelling, but obviously it was a heated debate and it was ruining my almost perfect meal. After that I always ordered To-Go! Ugh!
I can't tell you if the food was good I was too uncomfortable to enjoy it, but it was cheap. That afternoon I got home and tried to study and I did somewhat...Well I really studied the first two chapters and then just skimmed through the other four of them...hehehe.

Thursday: I woke up and looked over a chapter. I got dressed and made it just on time to the exam. Everyone had already sat down and the tests were being handed out...too close! I sat and read the first question...holy shit I'm screwed. I had no idea what the first question was saying...ça tourne mal, mèrde ça commence trop mal! I BS'd it in hopes that it had something vague to do with the actual answer. (Later a friend confirmed that I was completely wrong!) The rest was ok, honestly I did what I could. I finished about 30min before the time given. My friend saw me and gave me the "no-way you're done look?" not knowing that I had not "torn-up" the exam. I handed in my test and the very nice prof smiles at me and says "how was it?" I said "it was ok..." She smiled and said goodbye. If she only knew...well she will once she corrects it. I just don't like sitting through a test for another 30min if I know I don't know the answers and am just going to add a bunch of meaningless words that aren't going to make any sense. I would just be wasting my time and her own.
After that I got home and went grocery shopping. I hate grocery shopping! It's such a devoir! I was standing in line at the cashier's and an old man tried to push my basket out of the way to pass through. Well I didn't budge, I'm sick of old French people pushing me around in grocery stores. I don't care if they're old! They can go around like everyone else! Instead the man pushed the guy behind me. The guy gets irritated and says sarcastically to the old man "merci!" and the old man turns around and says "La dame n'a pas bouger!" and the guy says "Elle a raison, vous n'avez même pas dit pardon," and I'm thinking why is this guy defending me? I didn't say anything and ignored the whole thing. It made for a very awkward situation. LOL Old people are just so bitter sometimes!
I got home, made curry chicken and watched Guru. Boring movie. Fake curry sauce.

Saturday: I had an awing experience at La Défense. It was a beautiful morning in Paris and we went to a mall? LOL yes we did. We spent so many hours there and bought absolutely nothing. We ended up going to a Target like store attached to the mall and bought groceries and Malibu for that night's soirée. The soirée was coo. I saw familiar faces. We danced, drank, and chatted up politics.
Thanks Eliana!

Sunday: I was supposed to go to a museum but I fell asleep...then I headed over to the "Carnaval" parade. I watched a Samba band of youngsters playing at Place de la République. It was f'in awesome! I was solo waiting for my soeur and Lily to arrive. When they got their we saw the Incredibles playing samba, it was adorable! We walked with the parade from République to Hotel de Ville. Then we had a merguez hot dog and split to our own places. We needed a break before heading to the Super Bowl soirée.
Marion called and we went out for a drink. It had been so long since I had seen her! It was so great seeing her again. She said my French had gotten a lot better and she was impressed. Ohla! That's a big compliment. Thanks Marion! I lost track of time and it was an hour before I had to be at work and it takes an hour to get to my work! OH SHIT! Hustle! I ran to the metro and made it there with my soeur with no time to spare.
No one had signed up for my class so I was free to go, but I didn't travel all that way for ntohing, so I went. It ended up being at a bar in the neighborhood where I had been, my own! GGRHH!
We got their and the French students weren't talking. Of course not, they were watching the game. Well I finally pinned down a few students and got them to talk to me. I got a Blow Job shot and that was fun! Yes, I ordered a Blow job and got a Blow job . That was my first time getting a Blow job so as you can tell I was very excited about it, hehe. Erin and I felt the need to sing the entire Grease soundtrack to our French students LOL that was too funny and poor guys they were horrified and confused! LOL
While at the bar you meet many interesting people. We met a group of men from Michigan here on Business, an old Italian guy giving us advice on Paris and Europe in general (he also bought us drinks!), and two guys from Denmark who just stopped to get a drink and stumbled onto the SuperBowl game LOL. The night was very rewarding an spent in some of the best company, my soeur, Lily, Erin, and very neato French students.
After the game, around 4am Lily, my soeur, and myself walked up the Champs-Elysées back to my place. It was only an hour til the metro opened so we watched "10 Things I Hate About You" in honor of the late Heath Ledger (tear*). So many memories with that movie...ah...
They went home and I slept fo a few hours.

At 4pm I had my first class. Obama vs. Clinton. and I had a total of 8 students, one of them was just crashing my course. I ran out of words by 5pm and still had an hour to go...shit! Well we filled it in with random stuff and actually went over class time by 15min. It was a good debate class...I named a student Bill he said my name is "Guillaume" I said oh ok so I'll call you William, he said no, I said ok then "Bill" and he said um ok, I said in honor of Hillary and then he said o ok! LOL too cute.

I liked having a class...power!

Today was SUPER TUESDAY! I went out to vote and was greeted by ladies supporting Obama! Obviously he is a favorite here! My word! I took the propaganda and headed for the polls. I cast my vote and was a little sad that I wouldn't be counted with California, but rather as a "Democrat Abroad" oh well no worries. I really hope he wins! I went on his site and I really support him and have HOPE that he will win.
Here is his video:

La mariée était en noir

The title of this blog is a film by Truffaut. Direct Soir is a free daily newspaper and I read that the film would be on tonight. I'm watching it as I type. I took a French film class and all we watched were Truffauts films. There was always a beautiful powerful women and a weak man, scenes with a woman's legs were always to be found. I'm 30min into the film and this is already proving to be true...
Anyway the film is about a lady who goes around killing men at least that's what it's about so far...

I have a final Thursday which I have not yet studied for but I will...soon. My soeur said that the French don't volunteer information, maybe I shouldn't either. I tried to tell someone how something is and she tried to tell me I was wrong. Well whatever then! I just won't ever again.

I took a final today and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The professor brought candy; he is always so sweet. :) Then I went shopping, yes! Shopping! I know the soldes (aka: sales) started a month ago, but I have been so busy, sick, tired, and stressed, that I haven't had the chance to take advantage of this golden opportuniy. Well today I made the time. I went to Auber and the Champs-Élysées. I always try to go shopping on Monday and Tuesday early afternoons because that is when there is the least amount of people. I found fabulous things at fabulous prices! I have been searching everywhere since November for a wool jacket, a short one, fitted and perfect. I had such an image in my mind that I didn't want to settle for anything other than what I had pictured. I found it! I went to NAFNAF. Saturday, I saw Sara with a cute jacket and I asked her where she had gotten it, she said NAFNAF. I went and searched everywhere, I had almost lost hope when I saw it! It was hanging on a display rack among other ugly coats. It was my size too! The only one in the store! We were made for eachother! Ahhhhh...la vie est belle. I'm too happy.

Then it was off to work, Tom wanting to discuss drugs and Lucas talking about films avoiding all Spanish, of course! Ah...I'm so tired and the film is still going, she is still trying to kill men....aye aye aye...

QUOTE (from the movie): "Ce que disent les Italiens 'Tous les femmes sont des putaines sauf ma mère elle est sainte!'"

Her killing spree continues...

I have a REAL job! YAY for my BLACKLIST!

Well...it's not really a job it's technically an internship. I am now a SUSI at EPITECH aka an English assistant at an engineering university in Paris. SWEET! Way better than my gigs I have now! Not that I won't miss my kids, but I got to do the best thing for my resumé.
Congratulations to Lily too, who also got hired! =) We both skipped our class in order to get hired. We'll get the notes from someone no worries.
I'm not sure when I start but no hurry.
I picked my classes for next semester I guess we'll see how that goes.
I had a final today and I'm not sure how that went, but I'm hoping for the best. I might go to Dupleix tonight...maybe not I'm tired and I have nothing to wear! LOL
Someone is on my blacklist but I won't tell who. AARRGGHHH!!!! Don't ask me who it is, if you don't know already maybe I don't want to share. I just wanted to vent about it on here.
Tomorrow should be fun I have Arabic and Hindi movie night with my soeur!
My landlady came in my studio without asking, that pisses me off, but oh well what can I do.
I mailed in my CAF and my medical receipts so soon I will have some dough in my pocket.

I feel better about Paris now...I just have to try harder when it comes to French., it's just that sometimes I get so frustrated I want to give up. >|

c'est à toi...

I named this blog entry "it's your turn," because this weekend I met some people who are just starting this crazy experience.

Friday: I stayed up until 3am finishing my school work. I went to my last day of Marketing class. Then I met up with Jose Luis (a Spanish exchange student) to work on our oral presentation. He said my French was really good, I was very flattered! Whenever we spoke Spanish he would start to laugh. I finally asked him what was so funny he said "it's your Mexican accent when you speak Spanish," I thought to myself "whatever buddy." He was a nice guy and the presentation went well. A group presented on the French government funding films and we presented on the troubles of the banlieues (suburbs). At the end of class we had our oral final. I did ok sauf (except) for the nasales words ending in: -an, -en, and -on. No worries. When we finished I told the professor how much I loved Phonetics. She asked me how long have I been studying French and I said since I was 14yrs old. She asked me how it was that I spoke Spanish. I told her I was Mexican and my parents raised us bilingual. She said that helps when you have two identities. I guess it facilitates your adaptation and makes it easier for you to leave one identity and go to another. She said there are two kinds of people that learn languages one because they want it on their resumé and the other because they really want to integrate into society. Those who want to integrate will be much more willing to adopt the accent. I don't know if I believe this theory but it's some food for thought.
Well she again was very encouraging. I told her about my experience at La Comédie Française, and she wasn't surprised she said that even for the French those plays are hard to follow. Great it seems everyone knew how awful it was except for us.

Immediately after, I rushed to EPITECH a technical school for computer nerds. Lily and I arrived just on time. We were greeted by Ana (an English Tutor), she told us the nitty gritty the horrors of the job and what to expect. Basically a few rules : never be late, never speak French, no giving out your number or email to students. Then Emery comes in and uses 5things to describe himself: manic depressive, bipolar, alcoholic, grumpy, and alcoholic. Hmmmm oh and he won't hire guys. Perfect! :/

We all walk out of the meeting wondering whether or not we really want to do this. There were lots of new bees at the meeting. They looked so happy to be in France, but we quickly shot down their dreams of a wonderland. Of course maybe for them it will be different no major holidays to spend alone and no 4 degree Celsius weather to bear weeks without end...

Lily and I bought some booze and wandered to streets for a while then we called it a night.

Saturday:
My landlady invited me to have lunch with her. I went up and entered a fabulous apartment. It occupied the entire floor and had head to toe windows overlooking the street and the garden. It wasn't an old school place. It had lots of clean lines and bright primary colors. She made a full 3 course meal. We had grapefruit full of shrimp oil and chunks of grapefruit, as an appetizer. Then veal with cloves and carrots. We finished with dessert which was an apricot tart. She is quite a talker. Her daughter is living in Switzerland and hardly ever visits. this makes her sad and she is a heavy smoker. She was born in 1926. Her husband goes hunting every weekend in their country home and so she spends weekends alone. She had an aupair from Mexico many years ago when her daughter was young (now her daughter is 36) and still writes to this lady from time to time. She was prying into my life as well. Questioning me about why my parents immigrated, how I learned Spanish and if my parents English is any good. That kind of ticked me off. I had to cut our lunch short because I had to go meet my soeur and Lily.

The girls and I went to Gare du Nord and we tried the Indo-Mexi resto, it had nothing to do with Mexican food. Lily had never had Indain food but she liked it. They had chicken curry with nann and I had veggie samosas (they weren't very good) I was expecting something a lil' more spicy. We walked down the street and I gawked at the DVDs and elaborate Sari displays in the windows. Lily and I both want to get henna done before we leave.

We went back to my quartier and explored Sephora. Then we found a cheapy (by Paris standards) hair cutting place. So Liz and I got our hair cut for 22euro. It was alright but I think she cut off too much hair!

It was a good night. :)
Happy belated birthday to Allan and Topher may all your wishes come true!

Libres Sont Les Papillons

I shouldn't even be on here, I have a presentation tomorrow and I haven't even done my outline for it! Second of all I have an oral exam tomorrow which I didn't study for either! Oh well...i'll wing it :) So why am I on here? Well I had a GOOD day!

I cleaned out my fridge (stuff was moldy in there...), I went to get my boots fixed, and I bought some much groceries. I haven't seen my French TV in awhile so I decided to turn it on and check out the new French music. I was so wrong, they were playing the same clips (music videos, called clips here) and the same English songs. So, I turned it off.

Then I went to class for the first time in three weeks. I saw Imane (Ihaven't seen her in a long time) a Spanish exchange student that is half Moroccan (she helps me with my Arabic). It was a good class, I sat next to Marion and we chatted throughout the lecture.

I got home and had some Sangria and a chocolate sandwich. I also quit my job, the one where I teach the little ones to speak English. They are just too much for me to handle and I rather work at EPITECH. A lady I babysat for about two months ago called me so that I could babysit again, so weird I thought she didn't like me. Oh well, cool, I'll do it a lil extra euros never hurt anyone! Then I went to work. Lucas made a lasagna it was delicious. We talked about Colombia's drug war. We chatted about his girlfriends in Spanish and I taught him some vocab. Tom wasn't around, he went to Jujitsu class.

Then I rushed to the play. My soeur has wanted to see it for awhile. Artur was supposed to come but the damn ticket website wouldn't let me reserve one ticket, jerks! Anyway, so I had ten minutes to spare when I finally reached the theater. The play is called, LIBRES SONT LES PAPILLONS. It was awesome! It's about I blind guy who has a girlfriend. After the Comédie Française disaster I was not expecting to understand this play, but I did, I understood the whole thing! I feel there is still hope for me! LOL I really felt for the characters in the play, by the end of it I was so full of emotion! The CD was for sale and my soeur bought it (I'll burn it later, hehehe), the actress had a really good voice! I HIGHLY recommend the play. It's playing at Théatre Coté Cour. Métro: Parmentier. Tickets are 10euro (reserve by two) at billetreduc.fr

After the play we hit up MacDo. I had a KitKat McFlurry, yummmmy! We sat and were chatting in our own little corner. We, of course were speaking in English. I was settled and talking away to my soeur when a mec (French guy) comes and taps me on the shoulder. I turn around and I see a guy, average height, long curly hair, in khakis, carrying a duffel bag. He says to me "I-I-I...just wanted to say I really enjoyed hearing you speak American." I was completely caught off guard. I smile and say to him "thanks," and he runs out of the resto (what was I supposed to say? LOL). LMAO What was that? Whenever I speak English I was always get these disapproving stares and here was a mec telling me he enjoyed hearing us speak American LMAO! I guess you just never know.

Ok, I better start my outline...

This blog is dedicated to my brother.
I forgot to thank him in my previous blog. He really helped me get through my one week depression. He would stay up and Skype with me until I fell asleep. He is awesome; I love him so much! Thanks Brother!