I missed knitting

It's like I'm simultaneously living two lives. One in 2010, and one in 2009. The me of exactly one year ago is at her first day of orientation in Paris. The me of exactly one liturgical year ago will be going to Mass on campus tomorrow and then getting to explain to all the non-catholic students at "Catholic University" what carême is.

The Knitting Olympics have started! I'm absolutely in love with my project. The 100% superwash merino wool, the bamboo double-point needles. It's a dream to work with. And, though the colors are deliberately jarring, they are just so cheerful that I can't help but be so happy when knitting this hat! Even stockinette in the round isn't boring.

"What hat?" you ask? "Knitting Olympics?" you question me with a disdainfully bemused expression? Yeah! I'm making myself Jayne's Pretty Cunning Hat! It's pretty universally awesome.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch firefly here or here before asking. You won't be sorry you did. The hat makes its debut in "The Message".

I'm taking a picture of my progress every day and posting it on ravelry and Picasa. Check it out!

The best photos from Europe

I haven't posted photos from Europe since Spain I think.

These ones here I've specially set aside because they totally rock. i.e. they're funny...

Here's me and Sancho Panza hangin' in Alcalá de Henares

The cathedral in Salamanca. When they restored the portico, they included a special touch that identified when the repairs were done.

This tree outside the church of St. Cecilia in Rome was the saddest sight of Christmas. Apparently, someone gave up on decorating the tree halfway up! :(

A statue in the Vatican Museum with a phantom hand.

People in Luxembourg either don't speak English very well, or have some very disgusting habits.

If you can read the graffiti on the right, it says "Read the Bible" in French. Spotted in the church of St. Michael in Luxembourg City.

This is a fine example of art found at the Louvre. Yeah, its a guy ripping the entrails out of a hanging animal corpse. Yum!

This gem seen in Lisieux. I bet you can tell what those businesses are. I would sure trust them to take me to the hospital!

This. Is. The. Worst. Thing. Ever.

Manga, as you may know, are Japanese comic books. This is a manga about the Life of Anime-Jesus. Yeah. The title says "The Messiah" and the words above the title read, "Did He come to destroy the world or to save it?"

Yay, Italian McDonalds!

My last week My last days

I was going to write this post earlier in the week, but as things are wont to do when you're about to leave the country, things got too busy.
This week has been full to bursting, but mostly with the kinds of things that are errands because you're doing them hurriedly. Normally, trying to get to the Catacombes while they're open would be a fun thing, but that's the attitude that got them pushed to my last day in Paris in the first place.
I also had three tests and three papers this week. One test was this morning, one is in about 15 minutes, and the last is tomorrow. And I just have to correct two sentences and email the last paper when I get a spare minute.
In other news, typing is difficult because I've been too lazy recently to change from the French layout to the American one, so as I type this in the American layout, my fingers feel like uncooperative noodles.
In even other news, the weather in Paris is being unpleasant again. I don't mind though as long as I'm not outside when it rains harder than a sprinkle. I've already pretty much seen the outdoor stuff. And anything else is scratched off my list in a frustrated Bic green already.
I climbed the Eiffel Tower on Sunday and visited Lisieux on Monday. I think I'll hold off on a more detailed description until I'm home with: A. a computer that likes me, and B. a cable for my camera. Yes folks, I will eventually put up photos from the last several months. There are hundreds.
Did I mention that I have jury duty Wednesday?
OK, people. I'm officially not thinking about it, so you didn't hear it from me, but I'm leaving Paris Saturday morning, and arriving in California Sunday afternoon.
Can't wait to see you!
Gros bisous,
-Ganchi

We believe that time runs at a rate of sixty minutes per hour...

...because that's what they've told us all our lives. But what's to say we have to believe them, when we have all this evidence on our side?

I'm a day away from the two week mark, with the end of the month approaching ever faster and faster.

Life is all a blur with time throwing me for a loop and nothing in focus but

School, in its interminable three-hour chunks,

A slowly dwindling "to tourist" list, sadly dependant on the uncooperative weather,

The light at the end of the Chunnel, my imminent return to California May 31.

But there's stuff that goes on. 3 euro movies during the Cannes festival, Museum night, veillées at Sacré Coeur, days spent hanging out with long lost friends, metro rides, museums, landmarks, metro rides, monuments, museums, bus rides, monuments, metro rides, and museums,

and through it all, I'm getting pretty good at the Our Father in French.

I'll acknowledge but not appologize for this post's speculative nature. But what else can you expect at this point in my nine month European adventure?

Plus, it's raining.

A quick post to let you know I'm alive.

Yo y'all.
I am the definition of busy right now. There's various bits of busyness that won't all fit into my busy busy schedule. Yeah. I don't have enough internet time to apply for summer employment and enjoy my last three weeks in Paris. But I've done exciting things in the time that the ISA office wasn't open, so let's talk about some of those before it closes again....

I saw the statue of liberty, as I figure I'm not going to NYC any time soon. But I think this one is smaller...

I bought a Schtrumph book (that's French for Smurf). I've never been into the Smurfs before, but I can't imagine they could be better in English!

I also bought a book of Bébé Blues. Yes. Baby Blues in French! It's our favorite comic strip, but this book can't get loved to shreds by Michael and Beth, cause they can't read it! It's funny cause they changed Zoe to Justine, though Zoe is a French name, but left Wanda intact. They also use Francs and cms, and are amazing.

Went to the musée d'Orsay last week, which was really awesome. The first Sun of each month, several museums are free. So there was an hour-and-a-half wait to get in, but it was worth it!

Oh yeah, there was a week and a half in Spain. Did I blog about that? It was relaxing. It was warm. And then Paris was raining when I came back.

There are so many things I haven't been able to blog about this semester, and with only three weeks left before I head home, chances are good I won't be able to at all.
But! I will make a powerpoint presentation or something as soon as I can, which will be used in various slide-show-soirées yet to be scheduled. I'll probably post that up online somewhere as soon as I have reliable web access.

I applied for five jobs today, which is pretty good, right? Some of them are a little far, and more of a fall back thing. Basically I'm applying to as many jobs as I can online, as I'm in no position to be walking into a local store and asking for an application.

Yeah. So I'm gonna split.
Love ya guys. Can't wait to see you so so so soon!!!
May 31, start the countdown.

I did it!

I finished 100 pages of ScriptFrenzy! I won!
I still have two scenes outlined before the story is over, but those come after a nap, as, thanks to entirely too much homework last night, plus a need to spend every spare second on my script, I didn't sleep much last night and am therefore rather zombiesque.
But tomorrow is Labor Day, and we don't have class, so I can sleep in and really celebrate my victory!
And thus my last month in Europe begins, and I've got a list of things to get done, on which is "update blog" so you should be hearing from me as soon as Monday. God bless, tout le monde!
-Rebekah,
script writer

Brevity

As I find myself suddenly with a half-hour break in my busy schedule before class and I thought I should spend some of it telling you all about all the things that are making me too busy to blog regularly.

There have been excursions. Lourdes with Maria (a Catholic friend) was a neat/peaceful/moving experience. And the weather was lovely!

In fact, the weather in Paris has been steadily improving over the past few weeks. It's in that awkward place where you have to carry your heavy coat around in the afternoon.

Like when two friends from Gaming came to visit during ten-day. They finally contacted me and it was great to see them.

But I've been too busy with business to enjoy the outdoors too much. (I feel like I could enjoy Paris more if I had internet at home and could do all this work A) when everyone in the USA is awake and B) when the office is closed instead of when the sun is out.

But! My taxes are done. I've all but signed the FAFSA. I've got to run to the post office to mail my houseing deposit. I've got to wait for my study abroad transcripts to come in to be able to register for classes before Apr 17. (Prerequisites) That should probably happen in time, but if it doesn't, I'll have to register for some bogus class to be full-time and qualify for housing. Any suggestions? :)

But fortunately, things are more of less working out on that end, or at least should be able to be figured out by the time classes start. I still feel like it's out of sight out of mind with the faculty and staff of FUS though.

And this last week-end we went to the Loire valley, which included a massive wine-tasting and then a karioke session in the bus. Yes.

And I'm still doing Script Frenzy, which is going on swimmingly, or at least swimming slowly.

Gotta run to class now, Have a blessed Holy Week and easter tout le monde!

Les Poissons

Hey guys! Guess what? I'm going to pull goofy little pranks on my blog because it's April fools' day!

Ha! Did you fall for it?

Nah, I'm too busy watching my back for paper fish and wondering if my friends lied about coming to Paris. I won't elaborate on that last part until next week.

I'm also not going to blog about Normandy or Lourdes yet. Sorry. It will happen eventually, though.

Script Frenzy started today. I'm 5 pages in and it's only 1:30 pm. I've got the main characters all picked out, though. There are 9 males and 7 females.

And tonight, I'm going to a match de foot. I've never been to a real soccer game before, so it should be interesting.

If you see Tessa or Erica, tell them to call me.
Talk to you later!

Pictures of Mont-Saint-Michel

I managed to lose the USB cable for my camera (I never thought I'd be lacking in those) so I'll have to borrow someone else's to post my own photos. But unitl then, here are some photos from last weekend on the ISA Paris website. But hurry! They'll only be there for a week!

I'm going to Loudres...

...tonight with one of my catholic friends. Mutual prayer time?
Hasta martes!

La Grève

Yeah, it was yesterday. But whatev (which rhymes with grève)
Yesterday, for no really good reason that I could see, everyone in the entire country was on strike. Not literally everyone, but it was national and for just one day. Even the local public park was "on strike" (closed for the day).
It makes very little sense to me, coming as I do from an American and not very labor-union-savvy background. But I was under the impression, and correct me if I'm wrong, that unions only used strikes for specific purposes, i.e. to accomplish something. I asked Madame why they were striking, and she looked at me like I was completely dense and said, "Because the economy's bad and they're not making enough money."
Yeah. Great. But did striking for one day and messing up countless people's lives who take the regional trains every day actually accomplish anything? Why do all the unions have to strike at once? Why, if they did accomplish something (a better contract, for example), did they strike at all or why didn't the strike last much longer?
Yes. I know. I'm being unreasonably demanding. There's no reason I should expect the French labor system to make any sense.
I'd just like to get your takes on it, too. Maybe I'm missing something.

Qué tal a todos?

Yeah,  I haven't really blogged in almost two weeks. I know.

Classes have started, and I've got 18 hours of French! It would probably be better if they came in chunks shorter than 3 hours, but I'm still enjoying most of them.
Then today, my Langue Francaise teacher said she'd try to see if there was room for me in a higher level class, which was quite flattering. I really like that teacher though, so I just hope the new one will be nice.
I'm talking to my family on skype, and I have been for the last 1:45. I love to talk to my family, but I do tend to use it as an excuse to bring my laptop to the office so I can download TV shows. My roommate and I both love Heroes and House, though she'll be bummed to learn that there was no new House episode this week.

When internet is limited, one takes advantage of opportunities to blog

I really don't have much to say. I just thought I'd let you know that I'm all good and stuff.
We've been going non-stop all week. Museums, sightseeing, boat trips down the Seine. It's a lot of hard work! :)
There's also been meetings or excursions every morning, so it was nice to be able to sleep in this morning. I'm in the office with my laptop doing this weekend's downloading, as I won't have internet access again until Monday. I'll survive, I guess, but it's a bit of a pain to not have the web at home. This also means that, due to time differences and opening hours, it might be best to contact me on my phone. Or comment on my blog! Or send me an email! But if you want to skype me, we'll have to set up a time beforehand, so I'll know to bring my laptop and mic.
I haven't put the pictures on my camera on my computer yet, so once I do that, I'll add some photos from my trip to Picassa Online.
Talk to you later!

Cell phone

Hey, y'all. Orientation week in Paris is going great! I've got a cell phone. So, if anyone would like to call me, is can be done at...
[stops and thinks for a change]
...a phone number that I can email you. Just let me know if you want it. I can also recieve texts for free and send them for 25 Euro cents. No reason to be out of touch!

Chez moi, autre fois

Sorta.

I got to Paris Wednesday afternoon. I'm in a hostel for four nights, until the program starts on Sunday. It's a little bit strange to be here, mostly because of what I'm doing, or, more specifically, what I'm not doing. I'm not being a tourist. Well, not very much. I went on the free tour yesterday, in an effort to acquaint myself with the city a little. Tonight the Louvre is free for students under 26. Tomorrow, I may go to Lisieux for a day trip. But I'm not going to pay to go to museums that are covered by my program. So I'm chilling. I'll see if I can get some photos up on Picassa Web Albums later today. I'll post here when I do.

Love ya!
-Ganchi

French contact info

I've got my mailing address for France. Unfortunately, the homestay I'll be at this semester doesn't have internet, so we'll see how much I'm able to keep in touch in that way. But we'll see.
So, please send any snail mail to:

ISA Paris
Attn: Rebekah Schloeder
75, bis rue des plantes
75014 Paris, France

Love ya,
-Ganchi

Visas!

Yesterday was my appointment with the visa section of the French consulate. Emily came with me up to LA fr moral support and carpool eligibility. But once we got to the visa section, she wasn't allowed inside. Rules, bah. There was a security guard and a metal detector--these people are so much more uptight than the Spanish consulate. But anyway, I thought you might like to see what Schengen visas look like.

Spain:France:

I happened to take these with my new Logitech QuickCam IM Plus.
More on that in the next post.
-Rebekah

Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles!

I had an hour-long meeting today with Prof. Engel-Doyle (language dep. chair) about my classes for the next two semesters. Things have been going much too slowly in this process. Part of this is just due to the problems one invariably encounters when trying to work with four different people with different office hours. But part of the difficulty was just the discrepancy between Williams' "It shouldn't be a problem" and Engel-Doyle's "If you place intermediate in anything, you will get no credit, do you understand?"

So, long story short, all of the misunderstanding stemmed from the fact that "Intermediate" in France is considered Advanced here. Once we got that down, we only had half an hour of copying and signing to go!

Tomorrow, I will bring these forms to Ms. Cohen, and I will hopefully be able to mail in the last of my application tomorrow afternoon! Praise God!

-Rebekah