What's a flashdrive?

Technology and I have never really gotten along too well. Just ask anyone who has ever had to live with me since around 2004 when things started getting really complicated. Touch screens, power point, iWhatevers, smart phones, who can keep up?

Confession: Until 2005 I thought that an iPod was some kind of futuristic space scooter, and I wanted nothing to do with it. 

My idea of an iPod, circa 2004. Turns out this thing is actually called
a "pod racer"...so there you go. I wonder if that creepy critter with the long
ears is manning this thing.
[Image from some star movie...wars, trek, who really knows/cares? ]

Then I got one from my aunt as a high school graduation gift and realized it was way cooler than the alien craft I had imagined. It was for MUSIC! And surprisingly, I was able to figure out how to use it with relatively few problems.

Kendall-1, Technology-0

Then came the day when I had to convert something to a PDF. That day was almost my undoing. Thank God I have 1.5 tech savvy roommate(s). When Sam actually lives with us full time, I feel like all of my technology problems will be eliminated. 

Kendall-1, Technology-1

This evening technology and I faced off for another battle, which came in the form of me trying to print off airline, bus, and hostel tickets for this week. I may not know much, but I do know how to print. This was definitely due to the computer that took (literally) 4 minutes to load a webpage, and also a printer that appears to be at least 10 years old. There were wins and losses on both sides. I feared defeat after the printer ate my paper for the 15^th time and shot out a bunch of unintelligible squgglies instead of my e-ticket. I decided to restart, only to discover that before it would boot up again, the computer had 23 updates to install. Yes…23. At a snail’s pace. 2 hours after sitting down at the desktop to execute a quick and simple task, I had tickets in hand. Sophie has about 20 fewer pages of printer paper, but I’m sure she’ll understand.

Kendall-1.5, Technology-1.5

So the playing field remains even. Until next time…  

First leg of spring break trip is tomorrow. Berlin, Prague and Vienna for week 1. So excited!

Plume's ready to go.

Extra, extra! Read all about it!

I’d like to make it known to the world that for the first time in ten years, I’m actually tan.

It started with a burn, of course, but faded nicely. In fact, I’m willing to bet that I’m more tan than my mom and my sister right now, who love to tease me for being so pale. The French Riviera is just too gorgeous. Even I can’t resist time outside taking in the sun. Usually I spend the summer doing my best to avoid being outdoors at all costs. What is the world coming to?

Kendall-the "before"
[i.e. this past weekend]

 Ok, I just google imaged suntan to give you an "after" but all of the
  results seemed mildly disturbing or inappropriate for this context.








In other news, spring break started this afternoon for me! No more class until May 2^nd- let the traveling begin! First up on the agenda is Berlin. We fly out on Friday and I’m so excited because my friend Judith is going to meet us there. She’s German and I haven’t seen her in over 5 years. Unfortunately she can’t spend the week with us- just the weekend in Berlin. It will be nice to have an interpreter while we’re there, though! The rest of Week One will be spent in Prague and Vienna. Week Two I’ll be in Italy for a wine festival and to hang out in Rome. 

I’m also pleased to announce that I’ve sorted out all of my travels for the remainder of the semester:

May 7-8: Paris (UMD group trip)

May 18-22: Frankfurt (visiting Judith)

June 4-9: Amsterdam (visiting Rabiah)

June 9-18: Ultimate Eurotrip-Geneva, Copenhagen *side trip to Sweden?, and Barcelona (with Sam, Heather, Justin, and Lori!)

June 20: Fly back to DC!

Time is going by so quickly!

Quick! Where is my straw hat?

Tourist season is official upon us. I’ve drawn this conclusion for several reasons:

-Down on the beach, “you can’t swing a dead cat” without whacking into a sunbather. Before you even ask, the answer is yes…many of them are nude/topless, although that seems to be a bigger trend with the older generations. Seriously though, the beaches are already crowded. I went down there a few days ago and had trouble deciding where I could sit and enjoy a fair amount of personal space without a boob or a speedo in my peripheral vision. It ain't pretty.

-The gelato shops have pushed their products out of the stores and onto the sidewalks. This is no good…that salted carmel butter flavor was already a huge temptation before, and now that it’s out on the sidewalk, I actually have to squeeze around the cart at least twice daily. I finally decoded the French undergarment sizing system today. I think it’s in my best interest to not go on a gelato binge, or my calculations may need a bit of adjusting.

- There are tons of small groups of people on segways zooming all around the town squares. I want to be one of those people one day. I think riding a segway is going on my bucket list. Maybe I’ll become a magician, while I’m at it. 

Hehehehe

- I hear more English than French around here. Yesterday I walked by a large group of elderly people melting in the sun. Their tour guide that was waving an American flag and screaming “Are you guys ready to party?!?!” …I think they were ready for bed. Also, I don’t think she was pleased with the lack of enthusiasm in their responses.

Granny Panties

One of the hazards of not doing your own laundry is that you have no control over the fate of your favorite pair of undies.

Ok, I know that there are probably lots of people out there who would be thrilled not to have to do their own laundry. I used to be one of those people, too. But now that I’m living with a family again, my host mom insists on doing all of the washing herself. As a result, my clothes get mixed in with all the other clothes, and before you know it, something has disappeared.

So since my devastating loss, I decided it was time to venture out and try a French pair. Good intentions, but when I got to the store I realized I had absolutely no idea which to buy, since the sizing scale was completely different from America. Here I have to choose a size ranging from 34-44. Back home it pretty much boils down to choosing between 6, 7, or 8. Also, all of the rolled up packaged pairs had no indication of what cut they were- bikini, boy briefs, thongs, cheekers- This is important...what exactly are you trying to sell me, Monoprix?

I simultaneously realized that

A) I had no idea what I was doing, and

B) laundry day wasn’t going to be here soon enough.

I had no choice but to take a chance and eyeball it.

So I did, and I was sorely mistaken. Oh well, better luck tomorrow…

Death by rabies

It’s bedtime, and I’m scared.

Last night I had a nightmare that turned out to be true, and I’m afraid it’s going to happen again.

This creepy cat has been living on our balcony for the past month. We always shoo it away but it keeps coming back. It peers in the windows at us and meows for hours. HOURS, I tell you. And it’s that horrible constant really loud meowing that you can’t tune out. Plume is going crazy, Sophie’s going crazy, we’re all going crazy.

It’s getting pretty warm around here and since we don’t have air conditioning, I like to open my full length bedroom window for some air circulation, especially at night. Unfortunately the window happens to lead out on to the balcony. This means I have to also keep dragging Plume back inside, since she’s made it her mission to investigate the intruder that lurks around out there. She’s sneaky though, so sometime she makes it out to the balcony undetected and it isn’t until I hear the two cats fighting that I realize what’s going on. Hissing, spitting, deafening meows…lately, this has become the soundtrack to my life [Well, cat sounds as well as the Lady Gaga song Born this way, which our neighbors seem to enjoy listening to at full volume on repeat for hours on end].

I don’t know why this cat gives me the creeps, but it just does. It’s eerie…maybe because it’s solid black with really light green eyes. It also seems very wild. Last night around 3am [Isn’t that the witching hour or something?] I woke up really hot during the night and decided to open the doors for some cool air. I fell back asleep and was having a dream that the creepy cat wandered into my room, loudly meowing and intently staring at me with its pale green eyes while plotting my demise for no good reason.

Something startled me and I woke up abruptly only to discover that the cat WAS in my room, a couple feet from my face, creepily staring at me with its pale green eyes! It’s hard to say for sure whether or not it was actually plotting my demise, but I’m leaning toward the affirmative on this one, and it was definitely for no good reason.

So tonight, I’m weighing my options…risk death by rabid cat or play it safe and overheat? 

Plume- The cat that doesn't freak me out...usually.

Constant companion

Resting up for epic "Good v. Evil" battle against creepy black cat

Big Red

What’s the use in being one quarter Indian when every time I come into contact with the sun, I come away from it feeling crispy and looking like a lobster?

Seriously...SPF 30 reapplied every half hour just doesn’t cut it. I wonder if they sell zinc oxide in a quantity large enough for me to slather all over my entire body. Don’t think I wont do it- just ask my mom or my aunt about Cancun! 

Today I went on a day trip to Eze, a nearby small town with a great beach. Originally I didn't think I'd go, since I was already a little sunburned from Friday (Apparently going for a walk was just too much for my ghostly complexion.). But I decided I wanted to see this place and am running out of time, so I packed a sandwich and met up with the group.

It was amazing. We started out on this little dock and we had the entire area to ourselves for most of the afternoon, until these two little girls showed up with their mom. The water was pretty deep and electric blue, so a few of the kids with me decided to cliff dive. Really the rock they jumped from was not that far up, so it was more like jumping off a high dive feet first while holding your nose. Since I was trying not to get skin cancer, I decided it would be better for me to protect myself and stay covered up, so I spent the day wearing a sundress and snapping pictures. I’m a little jealous, though. I’d like to try the jump, so I’m hoping to go back sometime soon.

Despite my best efforts, I still came back crispier than I was when I woke up this morning.Where are those Indian genes when you need them?

Here are pictures from today. It was so beautiful; it looked like a scene from The Count of Monte Cristo. I’m almost positive there’s some buried treasure down there! 

The jump

The product of a broken home

Guys…I’m living in a broken home.

Ok, broken home is maybe a little dramatic, but my host mom’s boyfriend (my self proclaimed “host dad”) broke up with her today. This is a serious bummer, since I really liked him and he practically lived with us. Sophie seems ok, but I know she’s got to be really upset. They’ve been together for years and I can’t imagine her not being affected. I keep wondering if I’ll see him again. As another native English speaker, he was such a great resource for me around here…I wasn’t expecting him to just up and disappear. I don’t like this, not one bit!

The worst part is it came in the form of a letter, written in English. This doesn’t really seem fair since Sophie’s not a fluent English speaker, and it was a bit awkward because she read the letter to me and asked for clarification on a few phrases. I didn’t know what to say, and I just felt awful. The writing was really vague and neither of us is actually 100% sure it was a break up letter.

This is a situation in which I certainly didn’t expect to find myself. I don’t really know what I should do to help Sophie. I suppose that just spending some time with her (as well as giving her lots of space) is all I can do. Tomorrow she’s going to teach me how to make ratatouille, which I’m excited about. 

Hopefully she will be as positive about this situation tomorrow as she has been today!  

Local social butterfly?

I’m starting to feel like a local around here!

There are a few reasons for this. First, I pretty much know my way around now. I know that Nice is not that big, but trust me…my sense of direction is nonexistent. This older couple stopped me and asked me for directions the other day, and I actually responded with a real set of directions rather than a blank stare (my typical go-to move when someone asks me where something is).

The other great thing about this is that the entire conversation was in French. It wasn’t a really long or detailed debate, but for me this was a big deal because I was actually able to get my point across via words rather than wild gestures and some franglish thrown in for flavor. I hope that this also means I don’t stick out as a tourist. Someone actually looked at me and thought “Hey, she looks like she would know.”

I look like I would know!!!!

Today is when it truly hit me though. On my walk home from school I ran into two people I know. I nearly smacked into the first one. I was off in my head and listening to my ipod and saw someone waving out of the corner of my eye. Assuming he was waving at someone else, I didn’t really pay attention until he stuck his hand in my face and I looked up and realized I was standing eyeball to belly button with my 15-foot tall German friend, Claas. We talked a bit and parted ways. A few minutes later I recognized another guy from the Erasmus group. He stopped me and we did the French kissy cheek thing, which is becoming sufficiently less awkward. At first I never knew which cheek to go for first- left or right? I guess it’s not really the same way every time, but I can just go with it now and it’s been weeks since I’ve come precariously close to actually kissing someone on accident.

I am so French! 

Kendall- January 2011
Eeek!

Kendall- February 2011
Getting better...

Kendall- Full transition... too cool to actually be in the picture.
Taking pictures of yourself in beautiful places is for tourists.

Why French girls don't get fat

One of the best movies of all time

 

I don’t think anyone would be surprised to hear that French people are generally way thinner than Americans. Since I’ve been here I’ve heard several people comment that “In America everything is bigger…” and while they’re usually talking about the cars or the Subway 5 dollar foot long, the same holds true for the population.

The French sure are a skinny people, and I’m pretty I’ve pinpointed the reason. It’s a combined result of extreme portion control peppered with starvation and shame.  They just don’t eat. Seriously, breakfast consists of espresso and half a slice of bread with jam. Lunch is cold cuts, bread, some fresh veggies and maybe leftovers. Dinner is along the same lines, with wine, a salad and maybe some cheese. Dessert consists of yogurt and/or fruit. It's all truly delicious. Everything is of such great quality...there just isn't a lot of it.

And they don’t snack. Nothing in between these meals…how do they do it?

The worst is between breakfast and lunch. I don’t know why, but even when I have a really filling breakfast around 8, I’m always starving by 10:30 or 11. And dinner is so late here..we usually eat around 8:30. That’s a lot of time between meals!

During meals portions are always pretty controlled, as well. No one really goes for seconds- or if they do, only a little bit. I don’t want to be “that American that eats twice as much as we do,” but geez, man.

Fortunately, I made it really clear from day one that I really love breakfast. As a result, Sophie buys oatmeal and cereal for me, which provides enough sustenance to survive until lunch.

Don’t get me wrong; they’re not starving me or anything. I know that they’d be perfectly fine with me snacking between meals, but I’m kind of stuck in this “When in Rome…” mentality and I want to do things the French way while I’m in France.

So I’ve developed survival strategies over the past few months that the French must also use.

-Drink lots of water. (As if I didn’t already drink tons of water before!)

-Hot tea and coffee are your friends. When I’m home I spend my days drinking mug after mug of hot beverages. They make you feel full.

-Dip into kitchen and swipe a spoonful of peanut butter. This is for when you’re really desperate. (for the cheaters)

As a last resort, I can turn to the emergency snack stash in my room.

"[This song] will go on"...apparently.

One of the best things about Europe is the abundance of street performers. My favorite is when they play the accordion-that’s when I know I’m really in France. The problem is, the performers aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be. Take “The Cat Man,” who stands on street corners in Revolutionary garb blaring My heart will go on and dancing with his two very mangy felines.

Listen, I know that the Titanic film was a huge deal…in 1997.  I get that it broke all sorts of records and still holds some of them to this day. It’s Kate and Leo, so magic was bound to happen. But I’m starting to realize that whereas in the US, the popularity of the theme song (Celine Dion’s My heart will go on) has waned ever so slightly over the past decade and a half, it’s still going strong in the rest of the world.  

I was a volunteer ESOL instructor last semester in Maryland. I had a class of 15 students, most of whom were Latin or South American. The bulk of the students were middle-aged women, but there was one young Venezuelan guy who never said a word. He just stared with a big goofy grin. One day in class we were playing a variation of tic tac toe that involved asking and answering questions and I noticed him scribbling furiously in his notebook. I was a little confused since there was really nothing to take notes on, but there he was practically writing a novel. At the end of class he slipped up to the front, handed me a piece of paper, said “this is for you,” and then ran away. Slightly baffled, I opened the folded letter and realized he had written out all the lyrics to My heart will go on. I’m not saying the situation wasn’t strange, but my neighbor informed me that when she was in Ecuador recently, that song was still a huge deal. From a cultural standpoint, this type of behavior was perfectly normal, the choice of song and all. [From this point, things just went downhill, finally ending with a failed marriage proposal and a terry cloth towel as a parting gift.] 

So yesterday I was walking home from school and passed another performer wearing a Native American headdress, blaring the Titanic song through a giant speaker, and playing along with a set of panpipes. This was unfortunate. While I admire the cahones on this guy for putting himself out there in the most public of all public squares in Nice, it just wasn’t good…in fact, it was borderline painful to hear. But there he was, serenading all of us with his screechy cacophony. So here’s to you, Native American Titanic Panpiper...one brave soul!

Ok, it wasn't quite this bad, but you should check out this link anyway: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2WH8mHJnhM

Bumper cars

The French are a confusing people-this much is certain. I’m sure they’d probably say the same thing about Americans, but now that I’m actually getting to know real French people, I’m learning a few interesting things from them. Sometimes I come away from a conversation feeling enlightened. Sometimes, not so much. 

I’ve mentioned it before, but the driving situation is terrifying. I don’t think I have it in me to ever even try it around here, not that I have a car anyway. They weave all over the road, obeying no laws. Green lights mean “go” and when the light turns red around here that means “gun it before the pedestrians make it into the crosswalk!” I’m telling you, I spend half my life here perched with one foot in a crosswalk and the other on the sidewalk, calculating the odds that I can make it across the street without becoming roadkill.

And parking…yikes! It’s really difficult to come by around here. I’ve seen countless drivers actually play a rather aggressive round of bumper cars to fit into a parallel parking spot. I mentioned this to a French guy the other day at my Each one, teach one event and he said “Yes of course. How else can you fit? That is why we have bampers” (bumpers).

Well, when you put it that way, I suppose it doesn’t sound quite so unreasonable. I could almost get behind that mentality...almost. But then he proceeded to tell me that since 99.9% of cars around here are manual, it’s customary to not use the E-brake. This makes it easier for other cars to bump yours out of the way. I asked what happens when you’re on a hill and he responded “It’s ok. No problem…”

Take it from me; not using your E-brake on a hill when you drive a manual is a problem. It is a HUGE problem. 

Here are more pictures from the Chagall museum: 

He had a thing for clowns.

Ceramic tile- Chagall was Jewish. Most of his
work has a religious theme.

If you look closely you'll notice a bird somewhere
in almost all of his paintings.

See a bird?

He was really fascinated by the circus.

Creation

Moses scores the commandments!

Deterioration into cornyess

Chagall

Excellent Sunday! It started out on the intellectual side with a museum excursion, but eventually evolved into an eating contest and laying on the beach like a miserable whale stuffed with garlic and buttery glory.

This morning I dragged a few people to the Marc Chagall museum, which was great. It was pretty small since it was only Chagall, but really well laid out and not overwhelming. I really like his stuff, maybe because I can pick out certain recurring themes (like a random chicken showing up in about 99% of his work) and it makes me feel smart- like I actually understand and can interpret art. 

Chagall-feeling like I sort of understood, until I got to this one

Chagall-birds everywhere!

Then we went to lunch at this place I’ve been dying to try. It’s all you can eat mussels, a local specialty. They have a dozen or so options of how you want them- garlic and white wine, sweet curry, roquefort cheese sauce, lemon and herb, etc.  Once we finally flagged down a server and were able to order, it was delicious. And we all seemed to take “all you can eat mussels” as a challenge. I don’t think they were ready for us. We ordered pot after pot of them, trying out all the different flavors. After we’d all had 3 pots our server came back by, winced at our table and said “is that all for you guys?” But of course it was not. It was all you can eat! 

Much to the relief of the restaurant, we finally left and waddled our way down to the beach, where we were 2 hours late meeting up with our friends. The beach, the sun, the breeze-everything was perfect.

Then I got an invitation to dinner at a friend’s place. Homemade pizza? You better believe I’ll be there! This was the highlight of my day. I’m pleased to announce that I have discovered a new pizza topping: corn. Yes, corn. I can't lie...this discovery was the highlight of my day, beating out Chagall and the lunch of gluttony. I know it’s nothing fancy, but I’ve never had pizza with corn on it, which came as a huge shock to the German and the Belgian that I was having dinner with. They said they were sure it was “all the rage” in America because they saw corn as a topping option at Pizza Hut.

Now I’ve been to many a Pizza Hut, but never have I seen corn as an option. It was a nice addition to an excellent pizza and a custom I may have to bring back to the States…unless Pizza Hut beats me to the punch!

Francy pants

For the entire semester, one of my crazy teachers here has been hounding every single student in the class about not owning The Bescherelle Series.

What is The Bescherelle Series? …That was my question, too!

It’s basically a series of French language books. Each book focuses on a particular subject, like spelling, grammar, or verb conjugation. The draw seems to be that they are very small and portable, but also really thorough and seem to cover anything you could possibly have a question about. Apparently no one who is serious about French can live without The Bescherelle Series, and to their credit, all of the reviews online are excellent. So mostly just because the woman terrifies me, but also because I’d like to think I’m somewhat serious about French, I went out and bought the stinkin’ books. The good news is that they were cheaper in a series. The bad news is that they still weren’t that cheap.

Oh well, now I have them and I demand to be taken seriously. Just as soon as I figure out how to use them…

Listen, I know that sounds pathetic, but everything is broken down into strange sections and tables. I looked up the word "puer" (to stink) in the back of the conjugation book and the index said to refer to U, 7-T. This makes no sense to me, since U is all about the subjunctive, 7 is “aimer” (to love), and T is “tuer” (to kill). Interesting, no?

I suppose I don’t actually need to use the books. Maybe they’re more for show…like a prop. If I start taking them to class and flashing the glossy hard cover every time my teacher walks by, she’ll just assume I know everything and won’t rip my homework apart with her scary red pen.

I plan to test out this theory on Tuesday. I’ll let you know how it goes! 

Brenda-Your post its have been put to good use, and this is only
the beginning. The stickies wall is multiplying by the day!

Look, Mom- I found a friend!

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to announce that I finally have French friends! It’s taken long enough, but I have achieved the impossible.

Ok, not impossible, but very difficult. Since I've been here I have made a lot of friends, especially through my engagement activity, but many of them aren't actually French. Fortunately I met and have actually been hanging out with some French people for a few weeks now, but I was afraid that by mentioning it, I would jinx it. But I think it’s actually happened. It’s not a fluke. I’ve been out for coffee with a girl named Jessica twice in the past 3 days. Both times, we’ve had a great time and chatted for hours in a mix of English and French. I love being able to be one of those people that switches back and forth between languages!

Really though, it’s not like we switch back and forth for no reason. For the most part I speak in French and she speaks in English (both practicing our second language) until we try to say something that’s too complicated and we revert back to our native languages.

The other day we met up for a much needed quality coffee (About once a week I get a serious craving for something better than Nescafé). We were sitting in the fnac café and as I was sipping the delicious caffeine, I realized that the people at the table beside us were doing the exact same thing as us. A language exchange, that is. The girl beside me was speaking French with a strong English accent, and the guy across the table was speaking English with a French accent. I think all four of us realized around the same time and starting eavesdropping on the other conversation. Finally someone initiated cross table conversation, and it turns out it was a British girl and a younger French boy. The girl had been volunteering at the boy’s school as an English teacher and the boy was really interested in improving his English, so he approached her about meeting up for conversation practice.  Unfortunately the girl, Fiona, will be going back to England in a couple weeks and the boy will be left without a conversation partner. This is where I come in. We’ve agreed to start meeting up Monday afternoons. Between that and hanging out with Jessica and her French friends a couple times a week, I look forward to some serious improvements in my language skills!