viva la vida

so let me tell you about a little trip i took this past weekend to madrid...

we left thursday night, and arrived just in time to leave our bags at our (very orange) hostel and go right back out again. we ended up going to grab a bite to eat at a café&té, which is a fast food chain, but it was very good. what surprised me was the overpowering smell of smoke...i guess people can still smoke in public places in madrid---one of the few places where they still can! so the smell was kind of nauseating everywhere, actually, but we left and went to a club called...wait for it... joy. it was pretty joyous, i must say. it was a masquerade, so we all got cardboard masks to wear, and we danced the night away...well, til about 4, when we parisians decided we were too tired to continue.

the next morning (friday) joleen and i slept in til 11, took showers (bliss! so sad that i look forward to staying at hostels to take a shower) and discovered that our room had a balcony. we ate lunch at a vegetarian restaurant on a "calle" with quotations on the cobblestones (i forget what it's called) and it was de-licious. then, since it was a cloudless, 60 degree day, we took a walk around our area, found the museo del prado and then stumbled upon the retiro, which is like central park and tuileries mixed together. we seriously were exicted to see the sunshine and to be able to take off our jackets; we could not stop giggling for about half an hour. and then we laid in the sun until it was time to meet the others at bilbao for pizza. not very spanish, but whatever.

we then walked to a park to see the temple of debod, or something along those lines, which is on a hill that boasts amazing views of madrid- and of the sunset. so we stayed to watch the sunset and i was seriously the happiest i've been so far here in europe. as the first stars began to come out, we set off to el jardin secreto (apologies for the massacre of the spanish language) which is well-known for its desserts. meh. twas okay. i've had better. but i do love me some cheesecake.

on saturday we did some more touristy things: we saw the royal palace, the plaza de mayor, cibeles, and took pictures of all of the above. i'm convinced that clouds do not exist in madrid: another 65 degree, blue-skied day. we then went to the reina sofia, a museum that houses works by dali, picasso, etc. because it was free, but we really only saw guernica before the guards ushered us out because it was time to close. from what i saw of the rest of the artworks, though, i can't say i really like dali too much. i am a fan; however, of magritte. and of picasso, bien sur.

saturday night was our tapas-hopping night. i forget the verb that gwenna told me, but i guess going from restaurant to restaurant in search of tortilla de patatas is a legitimate activity. so we did as the spaniards do. we then went to this bar that has been made to look like you're in a cave. stalagmites and stalactites and rock walls. this bar is very well known for a drink that sounded pretty weird to me: milk, cinnamon, and four different types of alcohol? what? but it ended up tasting incredibly amazing. i yearn for it. and what made it ten times better was that the milk for this drink came out of one of the stalagmites from the ceiling. yes. you read that correctly.

sunday morning we only had time for a visit to the street market before we had to go back to the hostel and leave for paris. but mark my words, i will return.

there's something about spain that i like so much more than france. probably the sunshine and the warmth had a lot to do with it, not going to lie. and perhaps the sunshine, then, makes the people of madrid more laid back and carefree. viva la vida. whereas the french (well, the parisians, anyway) are very uptight. all i want to do is go outside not dressed like i'm off to a fashion show or a shoot for the latest hipster mag. seriously, people. chill. and quit judging me.

i do what i want.

still no computer. it's ridiculous. but it definitely crashed. so everyone should send me mix CDs so i can start to rebuild my itunes library. hint, hint.

i met my french language exchange partner! her name is imene, she's algerian, 19, and a student of languages at the sorbonne. AKA she speaks arabic, french, spanish, english (she's SO good) and she's learning italian. ridiculous. we talked a lot about the differences between the education systems here in france and in the US. i met her entire family, and we talked in english for an hour and a half and then in french for another hour and a half. this is going to be so good for my french. when i'm forced to speak in class, i speak very slowly. but with imene, and her family, i got into a nice rhythm and was speaking pretty rapidly and animatedly, and i even started adopting some slang towards the end of our conversation. sweet deal.

i think that's all for now. this weekend i'll be exploring paris, hopefully have my computer, and doing my homework for all my classes. oh, and i have to clean. living alone has turned me into a pig. not even kidding. it's probably a good thing that i'll have so many guests because i'll actually keept the apartment clean!

WAIT! wait wait wait.
spring break is (almost) finalized.

barcelona for three days. morocco for ten days. london for four days. all for less than 300 euros. yes. you read that correctly. i can't even begin to describe how excited i am.

i may not ever leave europe.

i think i'll write anyway

so i haven't gotten my computer back yet, which literally made me sob for half an hour today. i called the so-called apple care center and, after sighing after i asked him to please repeat what he said slower, it turns out that i basically won't have my computer back for another week. so here's what happened: two weeks ago, i took my computer there, hoping they could fix it for me. ten days later, they called me. i went there, all excited, but was told, upon arrival, that they had merely found the problem, did i still want them to fix it? um, clearly i want you to fix it. that's why i brought it there in the first place!!!! goodness. so then they said they'd call me on monday. they didn't. so i called them on tuesday (today) and here i am.

i am pretty upset about the way they are treating me, and i am upset about not having my computer and therefore not talking to my friends and family as often or much, but i think the crying session today was a culmination of all the stress that i've been dealing with in my month abroad. oy. it felt good to get it out.

anyway, i'm going to update just because i feel like it, darn it. although it's going to be a workout for the brain because i'm typing in english on a french keyboard, so none of the letters are where they are supposed to be. it's taking me a long time to write this. but i accept the challenge.

i guess i'll start with egyptian princes, as promised. i don't even remember when this was, but a while ago i pretended i was an AUP student and went to the Plaza Madeleine with them: a club that their university had rented out for their biannual fundraiser or something along those lines. honestly one of the most fun times i've had in a really, really long time. i was never really big on clubbing, because the thought of bumping booties with complete strangers gave me the willies. but that night was just so much fun! perhaps because i knew everyone was a college student, i don't know. so anyway, this one girl comes up to me at some point and says "my friend thinks you're really cute. you should go and talk to him; he's an arab prince." intrigued, i went over to talk to this kid, who ended up taking me to his private table in what i guess constituted as the VIP area. we talked for a little bit, and his name is khaled and he's from egypt. and then he asked me to dance. sweet. so i start dancing. and he just stands there with his drink in his hand. okay, i thought, maybe it's a cultural thing. maybe i should take a few steps away from him or something and continue dancing less suggestively. nope. nothing. no reaction. finally, after feeling supremely awkward for dancing in front of this "prince" i gave up and told him i was going back down, maybe i'd see him later.

listen up boys. if you can't dance (and won't even try) i'm not going to give you the time of day. hahah. okay moving on.

so that night was just a barrel of laughs and joy and we ended up staying out until the subway reopened at 5:30 AM. i didn't get home until around 6:15 en la manana. there i was, striding up the streets of my ritzy neighborhood, hair disheveled, makeup all over my face, while some typical passy ladies in their big fur coats and their collagen-infused lips were walking their dogs (and neglecting to pick up the poop. probably my only complaint about paris--other than the terrible mac people, of course--is that there is so much dog poop everywhere). yes. so that was my night.

i have nothing to write about london BECAUSE I DIDN'T GO. apparently last week and weekend was the snowstorm of the century in england, so our flight got cancelled, and i wasn't about to wait til 8 PM for the next flight when i had paid for two days in london, not one. alas, i will just have to go when it's warmer. and this time i will take the train.

instead, i will tell you about my classes. because that's what i'm here for. to go to class. ahem. yes, so i am officially enrolled in: the contemporary art world, business french, francophone literature, and gender&sexuality in france.

the contemporary art world is going to be a good class. i've always liked modern, abstract, and contemporary art. the class is set up so that mondays we're in the classroom, looking at slides, learning about how to talk about art, etc. on wednesdays we go to various museums and galleries around paris to see exhibits and works by contemporary artists, and usually we have a talk-back session with the artist as well. i'm pretty excited for this class despite the amount of written work we're going to have to turn in.

business french is, so far, my easiest class. it's really just learning the vocabulary for different business-related fields and situations. we're going to have two role-plays during the semester, so those will be a pretty big deal. and if we're good enough, the professor is going to let us take the business exam that all french people take should they express the desire to be french businesspeople. that was a horrible sentence. i apologize. but yes. so if i'm good (and i will be good, damnit) i can take the exam and perhaps come back to work in france! in advertising! or marketing! or who knows what.

francophone literature is tough. there are only seven people in the class, including myself, so there's no hiding. but so far what we're doing is really interesting. although the class is called francophone lit, it's really just african lit, so right now we're reading some fables and discussing them. we'll be reading two other african novels, watching some movies, and going to museums. sounds pretty good to me. but this one kid in this class in actually from switzerland and so he's fluent, and the class seems like it's so easy for him--not just in the language aspect but also in the analysis aspect. i feel like he knows so much more than i do. why are foreigners so much smarter than americans?

finally, gender&sexuality is my toughest class. the subject matter is mostly feminism, but we will be doing some queer studies later on. things i don't know much about in english. the reading that we've been doing so far is quite dense, and it's difficult for me to understand what's going on in class because the prof speaks very quickly...the word that comes to mind when i think of her is whippersnapper, and i'm not really sure where that came from. but yes. it's going to be so interesting, but SUCH a challenge. oy vey. so much reading for this class: 200 pages of nelly roussel for next week. woop!

tomorrow night i am going to the ballet (fo free), about which i'm quite excited. i think that will make me feel much better about my life. that or it will make me really miss dancing and feel terrible about my body, which it probably will to some extent, but i'm going for the first emotion haha. it should be good.

this weekend i am going to madrid! hopefully. fingers crossed. i haven't had the best luck here so we'll see what'll happen. probably a hurricane or something. i don't know. knock on wood. but if all goes according to plan, i'll be in madrid, speaking spanish, attracting a latin lover just in time for valentine's day.......

so happy valentine's day everyone.
til next time, x

anti-technology

i have so much to write!
but i am waiting until i get my computer back.

yes. it crashed. the ubiquitous 2-year-mac curse.

things to look forward to in my next update:
-Egyptian princes
-taking the first subway home
-classes starting
-conversation partners
-LDN!
-and all sorts of other witty observations

hopefully i get my baby back soon...