February 29th Friday

I woke up on leap day at 8:45am still feeling sick. I had some yummy fruit and vanilla cereal for breakfast as well as a chocolate croissant. Megan also gave me some Lemsip with honey in it. It’s a powder you mix into hot water to help relieve flu symptoms. I pretty much had everything listed on the box. Megan also gave me some heavy duty vitamin C.

We walked to class again. It was raining and we got completely soaked. We sat through two lectures. One class was actually very interesting. The professor was discussing different elements needed to create a video game.

We went to lunch in one of the student restaurants. It threw me off to see a bar in the restaurant. We ended up sharing our lunches because we both wanted two different things. We shared some fish and chips as well as a tomato and goat cheese tart with coleslaw. I also had a diet Pepsi to drink. The food was actually pretty good.

After lunch we went to one of the computer labs. There I was able to check up on some emails. We headed to Megan’s last class of the day. It was a larger lecture. I entertained myself by drawing.

We left class and made our way through the rain toward the Wallace Monument. We made our way up the hill. As we went up the hill it proceeded to rain harder and get very windy. I felt like I was going to be blown off the hill. We made it up to the tower and looked around the gift shop. It was rather expensive. We talked about climbing the stairs in the tower but I felt like I was going to die at that point. We decided to just take some pictures of the view from here and climb down. We stopped at the statue and took some pictures with it. Then we walked home.

We were soaked when we got to the apartment. We put everything out to dry and changed clothes. We had some hot cocoa and some Lemsip to warms ourselves up. We went on the computer to try to plan the next day’s adventure.

Once we’d warmed up a bit, we donned our still slightly damp clothes to go to the Stirling Castle. It was night at this point. We drove up the cobbled streets toward the castle. Finally on the last hill, Megan’s car started complaining too much and we had to continue on foot. When we got to the top of the hill, it was pouring rain. We went up to the castle. I took some pictures of the walls but it was too dark to really see much. That’s why I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a man’s deep voice yelling something from the castle doors. I thought I’d heard a ghost. I just hadn’t seen the man standing in the dark shadows near the castle.

We made our way back down the small hill to the car. When we got to the car, the rain was gone. The street was dry too. It appeared to only be raining on the castle. Quite strange.

After the castle we went to a large grocery store called Morrison’s to get some things for dinner. The Cadbury eggs were all out so I had to buy some. I love those things. We bought some different things and headed home to make dinner.

We made some salmon with jam and vegetables on it. We ate it with rice and drank wine. It turned out delicious. While we ate we watched a little television. I got to see an interesting episode of the British Wife Swap. Then we ended up watching the beginning of Resident Evil. I hadn’t seen it before and it freaked me out. Then at 11:15pm we realized that the pubs were going to close. I’d wanted to go to a Scottish pub and see a drunken Scottish man.

When we left the apartment, we walked through a dark courtyard. I was still pretty scared from the movie. Megan was able to scare me pretty well on the way. We found a pub that Megan had liked and sat down. I had a cranberry juice and Megan had another kind of fruit juice. The bartender was very nice. The bar had lots of younger people in it as well as an older group around the pool table. We watched them play pool for a while. Then Megan asked if any of them would play her in a game. The guy that was about our age said he’d take her. Megan was kind of rusty and the guy started winning pretty quickly. He went easier on her for a while. Megan told him to stop it and play normally. Then she proceeded to hit a bunch of balls into the pockets. The guy was kind of startled. He ended up accidentally hitting the 8 ball in and automatically losing. It was a shame. Megan was about to beat him herself on her turn. It was nice to see Megan return victorious to the table.

We made our way home and went to bed around 1:20am.

February 28th Thursday

I was going to go to classes with Megan today so I woke up at 7:45am. I felt extremely sick. I had a cough and a headache. The cough was really strong. I had some Frosted Flakes for breakfast accompanied by more hot lemon honey water.

We walked to class. The walk includes a wonderful view of the tower and green fields as well as quaint Scottish houses. We made it to Megan’s 9:00am class. I was very sleepy and I felt my eyes drooping as the professor talked. It didn’t help that they were computer science classes. I was completely lost. I made it through two tutorials and was droopy-eyed in both of them.

Megan and I went for some lunch then. I got a vegetable bean soup and a roll with butter. We had our little hour break to munch. Then we went to a lecture. I almost fell asleep in this class too. I decided I was too tired and sick to make it through any more classes. I also didn’t want to be rude to the professors by falling asleep in their classes. I ended up taking the keys from Megan and walking back to her house to nap. She had classes until around 5:00 or 6:00pm. I slept pretty hard until Megan got back. I felt a bit better. For dinner we made a vegetable soup. We also had a type of casserole with pasta, cheese, and tomato. It was very good. I added too much hot pepper powder to the soup and almost killed myself. It was so hot I thought my throat was going to close off.

After dinner we had tea and some homemade truffles that Megan made. We chatted while watching TV again. She let me use her computer to check emails. I decided to take a bath before bed. It felt amazing. We went to bed around 1:30am.

February 27th Wednesday

I got up at 9:00am and had some cereal for breakfast. I showered and finished packing. I eagerly got ready for the day. Suddenly our buzzer rang. It was the mailwoman saying she was going to leave a package on top of the mailboxes. I was expecting one from my parents so I ran down to get it. I opened it on the way up and discovered a shirt in it. The shirt had a very pretty design and French all over it. I went ahead and packed it in my bag to take with me. I was worried about the weight limit. I think my carryon was just at the weight limit and just at the size restrictions. Hopefully they wouldn’t try to check it. I went ahead and emailed my parents to say thank you and let them know that it arrived safely.

I hopped on the metro and took it to the Beauvais airport bus stop. I went up to the ticket window and the man said something. I didn’t understand so I just asked for a two-way ticket. He said “Yes, but which flight are you catching?” I couldn’t remember the flight number so I just said I was on the one to Glasgow. He said “Dépechez-vous!” (hurry up!) I was confused and said “Dépeche-moi?” He said “Yes! The bus is about to leave!” I was under the impression that we could take any bus out to the airport but I hurried up and fumbled for my credit card. After paying I ran to the bus and loaded my bag. Then I hurried on… and waited for about 10 more minutes before the bus started moving. Hurry up indeed.

Finally we started on our way to Beauvais. It was the normal scenery of green fields and Buffalo Grills. One interesting thing was that, pretty close to Paris, we were behind a trailer. The car was stopped but the trailer was shaking back and forth. It looked like there was an angry animal in it. I thought that maybe it was a farmer taking an animal home from the Salon d’Agriculture. Then I got a look at the car pulling the trailer. That’s right- a car. There was one of those old, dinky little French cars pulling the trailer. It was a strange sight to me. I didn’t know cars could pull a trailer.

I got to the airport just fine and went to stand in line. I was worried because the check-in line was going very slowly. I got through the line with 15 or 20 minutes to spare on the final check-in time. I even got through without having to pay the fee at the desk! Lucky me. I still had to wait a while after security though.

We boarded the plane and I made it through the flight okay. I was very sleepy. Then, I looked out and saw some green hills and sparkling water. We landed in Scotland!!!

I made my way through the airport to the passport control desk. Since I’m not a member of the EU I had to step aside and fill out a form. The woman at the little podium gestured me forward. I came up while eyeing a girl frantically searching through her luggage. The woman leaned over to say “Ma’am, can you move aside to search for your passport please?” The girl looked up with eyes almost about to cry, “No, I most certainly can not!” This didn’t bode well.

The woman started out with normal questions that proceeded to become tougher. I felt especially stupid when I had no address to put down for where I was staying. I hadn’t asked Megan for that information. I just put down the town. Then the woman asked for my friend’s name. All I could think of was Megan. I couldn’t remember a last name. I was interrogated about where I met this person and why I was staying there. She also asked how many times I’d been into the UK before. By the time I passed the check point I felt extremely guilty for some reason and was wondering what my own name was.

I made it through though and eventually saw Megan sitting in some chairs waiting for me. I was worried I wouldn’t recognize her in a crowd, but I saw her! It felt just like old times seeing her again. We stopped by the Starbucks in the airport to get a lemon chicken sandwich and some water. Then we went out to find Megan’s car in the parking lot. We plopped my bag in the trunk and I got in the front left side of the car. The plan was now to go to Culzean Castle.

I got used to riding on the left side of the road pretty quickly. I only freaked out when I thought Megan was turning into the wrong side of the median. I also noticed that there are a lot of roundabouts in Scotland. We made our merry way south along the coast toward Ayr and the castle.

The scenery was beautiful. There were bright green hills dotted with sheep. These green hills turned into steep cliffs that dropped down to the sea. We got lost a couple of times. We stopped in on the town of Ayr to ask for directions in a kid restaurant called Pirate Pete. I’m very glad I don’t work there. Since we’d stopped for directions, we walked the few yards to the coast to look out. It was beautiful. It was also very cold. We looked and snapped a few photos before climbing back in the car.

We eventually found Culzean Castle. I asked “So you don’t pronounce the Z?” Megan replied “Not in Culzean but we do in normal words like ‘zebra’.” It was fun chatting on the way. When we got out of the car the parking lot was basically empty. Apparently not many people like to tour Scotland in February. We peeked in a garden but it was closed. The castle was amazing. It sat atop some rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean. The castle itself was closed but we were able to wander around the outside of it on the grounds. It had a large lawn with a fountain in it.

After the castle we started our drive north to go into Stirling. It took about an hour and a half and we passed through Glasgow. (Here I saw a hotel called Hotel Menzies. http://www.menzies-hotels.co.uk/hotels/glasgow/menzies_glasgow I had to explain to Megan why I found that hilarious. Apparently they don’t use that word in Scotland.) I was fairly sleepy by the time we made it into town. Megan took me on a little loop past Stirling Castle. This castle was also up on a ridge and looked impressive all lit up at night. We also took a swing by the Wallace Monument where we got out of the car to go up the hill a ways. This is a tower dedicated to William Wallace, a national hero. There’s a statue of Wallace outside the gift shop and information center. The people of Stirling were disturbed though when the statue bore more of a resemblance to Mel Gibson than Wallace. His shield even says “Braveheart.”

Megan and I got back in the car and finally made it to her apartment. We were both quite hungry at this point since it was around 9:00pm or so. I helped Megan make some dinner. We cut up different vegetables and cooked them with tomatoes to be served over rice. We also ate some salad that had tomato, avocado, and feta cheese on it. Megan made a mustard dressing to go on it.

After dinner we had some chocolate. I also gave Megan the Oreos I’d discovered in BHV. They’re her favorite cookies. I also had some hot water with lemon and honey in it. My throat was starting to get very sore. We chatted and caught up. We had the television on in the background. We ended up catching this very strange ER show. We saw two different men get their… areas sewn up. That was when I discovered that you could show all of the male anatomy on Scottish TV.

We ended up going to bed around 12:30. I even had my own room to sleep in.

February 26th Tuesday

I got up around 11:30am. I called the Sciences Po office to see if they were open. They said they were and that they’d be open in the afternoon. I had some cereal for breakfast and checked my morning emails. I got ready for the day and did a little bit of work.

I had some sausages that I’d bought that I needed to eat. I boiled three of them and had them for lunch. They were actually really good.

At 2:30pm we went to the Sciences Po office to ask about our health insurance. They gave us a letter saying we’d already paid and that we were students of Sciences Po. Then they told us that we would need to go to the actual health center to get our cards and register. We’d gotten health insurance with LMDE.

We left and went to the library. I studied some polls and surveys. I was trying to find information on opinion polls of the French president. I worked there from 3:00pm until 5:45pm. After that I walked home and bought a baguette along the way to have with dinner.

Once home I started making dinner. I made bowtie pasta with a Forestier sauce. It was a very good sauce with mushrooms in it that we’d bought at the store. I put some chopped up tomato, onion and garlic in it. I also chopped up the remaining sausages and put them in the sauce. I made a huge plate of food. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to eat it all. It turned out I could.

After dinner I introduced Adrienne to the idea of Utena (a Japanese anime). I showed her some pictures of me in my Utena costume as well as pictures and videos of the actual character. We found some really funny videos. My favorite was the Utena video to Gunther’s Tra la la song. Hilarious and inappropriate.

After our fun online I talked to my parents for a while. I managed to pack up for my trip the next day. I was going to visit my friend Megan in Scotland! I met Megan in Tours, France on our study abroad programs. It had been almost three years since we’d seen each other. I got to talk to her online and figure out all the details about meeting her the next day.

I went to bed and read for a while. I tried to go to sleep but I felt very awake. I think I was too excited about my trip. I also had a mild cough that came out of nowhere. I didn’t fall asleep until almost 3am.

February 25th Monday

I got up at 10am. For breakfast I made a ham and cheese omelet to use up the eggs. After I got ready, I made my way to the library. I researched for a while and grabbed some books. I wasn’t able to get on the internet on my computer. This meant I wasn’t distracted by online fun but it also meant that I couldn’t use useful features like the online French dictionary that I like.

Adrienne and I were hungry so we checked out the books we were looking at and went to a café to get lunch. I got a ham and butter sandwich. We walked home and ate lunch. We also made some cheap vegetable soup. I had to spice mine up. After I ate, I went down to the 8 à Huit where I bought some bottles of water and some juices. I wanted to try the large bottle of strawberry water that I saw.

Adrienne took a nap while I typed some things up. After a while Adrienne decided to go to the library. I really wanted to buy a watch before my upcoming trip to Scotland so I went to Monoprix. There, I bought a watch for just under €25. It was expensive but still half the cost of the absolute cheapest watches at BHV. I like the watch. It has a black band and a silver face.

After Monoprix I went to meet Amanda and Adrienne at Sciences Po. We wanted to go try and find some dinner in the area. It was about 6:00pm and that turned out to be too early for dinner. We couldn’t find any open restaurants so Amanda suggested that we go to try the CROUS cafeteria. We went and got in line at the cafeteria. Financially it was a very good deal. €2.80 for a hot meal. I started by making myself a salad from the salad bar. Then I picked up a plate that I thought had tomatoes and mozzarella. My main plate was noodles and beef. I was disappointed to find out that what I thought was mozzarella was a misshapen hardboiled egg. I didn’t eat that dish. The meal was a good deal but was very much cafeteria food. The meat was very tough and I gave up cutting it after a while. I enjoyed the company of my friends for dinner at least.

We headed home after dinner. Adrienne and I came across the crêpe stand on Boulevard Saint Germain. I was hungry from not being able to finish my dinner and still disappointed about my lack of mozzarella. This lead to my purchase of a nutella crêpe that cost 20 centimes more than my entire dinner. I guess I’ve got my priorities straight when it comes to food money.

Once we got home I had tea while I looked at some things online. I typed for a bit. I also looked up information for the office on Rue de la Chaise. I was going to call them the next day and see if they were open. I got to bed around 3:00am.

February 24th Sunday

Today was going to be a big day. I was going to the Salon d’Agriculture with Amanda. This is an annual event that allows French farmers to come from all over France and show off their products. The president is usually required to make an appearance.

I got up at 9:20am after hitting the snooze a few times. I had some cereal for breakfast. Adrienne wasn’t feeling up to going so she stayed home. I left my place and met up with Amanda around 11:00. We took the metro line 12 to the Porte Versailles stop. We came up the stairs among a large crowd of people. There was a huge building with “Salon d’Agriculture” across it. It even had a picture of a cute brown cow.

We headed toward the lines. Amazingly the lines didn’t take that long. We were able to pay our €6 student entry fee and head in to grab maps. We had little guides that told us which halls had which centers. We decided to go to the halls that had the regional products first.

We went in to a huge room. It was full of booths with vendors from different regions of France. They were each separated by region too. We walked in and went to the nearest booth. Now it was time for what makes the Salon really fun. The dégustations! All of the booths were giving out free samples. We walked up near one booth and the woman called us over. “Want to taste some wine?” We said yes and she poured us some small glasses of wine to taste. The wine was a very nice red. Then she had us taste some of the same wine from previous years. I actually could taste a big difference through the years. Amanda and I preferred the second to last wine that she had us taste. I can’t remember now what the exact year was. Then we went to the rest of the people at the same booth to try ham, cheese, and nuts.

At first I was nervous because I thought they would pressure me to buy their products, but they were all very cheerful and happy to show off their stuff. Soon I felt like a pro weaving through the booths grabbing cheese, ham, and wine. Amanda and I came up to the Champagne region. I had always wanted to try actual champagne from the Champagne region of France. Unfortunately, they did not have any free samples so Amanda and I bought a glass to share. It was only €3 for the glass. It did taste very good.

By one o’clock we’d decided that we’d hit a few too many wine booths. We made our way around to look for some ham and cheese booths. The food and the wine all tasted amazing. They all had such different tastes. The vendors were happy and smiling. We stopped at one booth where the man was carving off pieces of ham and cheese with a large knife. He said “Tout est pour degustation, même les vendeurs.” (You can try everything here, even the vendors!) Amanda and I said “Oh!” and looked at each other.

We talked to people with different accents. Some of the men had very large mustaches with the ends curled up. It was a beautiful celebration of culture… and food. Each region even had its own restaurant where you could sit down and eat specialties from that region.

I bought myself a souvenir. There was a handsome man selling bells. They were actually cowbells to be exact. I bought myself the smallest one. It’s silver and has a surprisingly loud ring for its size.

I had to call Adrienne and cancel my afternoon plans. She was meeting up with Capucine, our landlord’s daughter, to go see the movie Juno. The Salon was much bigger than I had imagined and it was going to take much longer to get through. We were just moving on to our second floor after three hours. We were still in the regions section. We continued to visit the different booths sporting different products. We also ran into a man selling can openers who liked flirting with us. We tried to sneak away while he was talking with some customers. Then he saw and said “Mais non!” He told his coworker to take down our addresses so he could find us later. Ahhh the French.

We’d been having so many samples that we only felt slightly hungry for lunch. We ended up buying a foie gras sandwich to split for €7. It was so delicious. The foie gras was smooth and creamy. It was on a crusty baguette. It even came with a complimentary drink. We tried to find a table and ended up sitting down to eat on a step. Our feet were beginning to complain from walking around so long.

Our next step was to journey into the regions d’outre mer. These are the areas that were former French colonies. There were all of a sudden very bright colors and loud music. Here it definitely felt like we weren’t in France any more. The food tended to be a bit more exotic here. We were tempted into buying a €3 coconut sorbet to share. That was quite delicious. It was sweet without being overpowering.

After we finished the sorbet it was time to leave behind the delicious French regions and head out to see the animals. We found one of the buildings. The next one we went to contained horses. These horses were very tall. They seemed much bigger than any of the horses I’d ridden in Colorado. We also saw some dogs, cats, and birds. They had different rings were they had different shows for each of the animals. We moved on to the next building.

This one contained sheep, cows, and pigs. These animals were all so much larger than any variety I had ever seen in real life. The cows were just massive. The sheep were even quite large. These farmers must know what they’re doing. We wandered around and looked at the different animals. Amanda pointed out to me a man that was selling leather right next to the cows. Here are the cows. Now here’s the leather. No delusion there.

We also go to have samples here. They had a milk bar with free milk for the children. Adults only had to pay €0.20. They even put a squirt of flavoring in. I had vanilla in my cup of milk. I drank my milk and looked at the giant picture behind me. It was of a large cow sitting down. There were streams of milk shooting out of its udders into surrounding cylinders. I never thought I’d see that.

I didn’t think there was a French cheese that I didn’t like. I found it there. Surprisingly it was not Roquefort. I’d tried that and actually liked it. No this cheese had a much more, natural flavor. It was very strong. I didn’t like it at all. It tasted very strongly of cow. After, we had to go back and get some strawberry milk to try to wash it down. We could still taste it after the milk. Amanda said that pretty soon we would turn into cows too.

I bought some postcards to keep as souvenirs. They had ones of cows and horses. We went to visit the momma pigs with their running piglets before deciding that we’d spent enough time at the Salon. We made our way to the door around 6:30pm and left with a crowd of people. We hopped on the metro and I was able to take it all the way back to my Solférino stop. I came away with a goody bag of information on different regions. I got maps of Brittany region which I’ve studied.

I came home and made more food for myself. The sandwich got me going so I made a pâté sandwich and then made up some of my frozen cheese crêpes. I finished it all off with some brioche and jam. After that I noted how much weight I’ve gained since coming to France. I’m going to have to watch how many cheese crêpes I eat.

Adrienne came back and told me all about her evening with Capucine. I was glad to hear that she had fun. Juno sounded like an interesting movie.

I went to bed around 1:30.

February 23rd Saturday

I got up around 10am. We had a meeting with our landlord at 11:00 so we wanted to be ready when he came. I had some chocolate cereal and got ready. I tried to quickly clean up the apartment before he arrived.

M. Choupin came over and we returned the original gas bill to him now that we’d successfully submitted our carte de séjour application. (It’s hard to not do a little dance every time I think that sentence.) Our landlord joked with us and said basically “So you guys are legit now? You’re not going to get deported?” We just laughed and said “Well, we hope we’re legit. We’ll see.”

Our landlord had also come over because we wanted to talk to him about a strange situation that had been occurring with our buzzer and the building. We have a door from the street that leads into the courtyard. You’ve got to have a code to get past this door. Then after the courtyard there’s another door that leads to the stairs of our building. You can buzz people to talk to them and ask them to buzz the door open or you can use a key.

We’d been having a guy that kept buzzing us and telling us strange stories just to get us to open the door. First he was asking for keys to the cave. Then he said that he had to check the chimney and gas. Adrienne has been the one to talk to him every time. She’s usually closer to the buzzer. Each time she tells him that she has no idea what he’s talking about and then hangs up. Well, the other day, the man got in and was at our apartment door. Once again, Adrienne was the one to talk to him. She told me it was the same guy who’s been buzzing us. He said some story about the chimney and gas. We don’t have either here. Adrienne told him he couldn’t come in and shut the door. We were concerned by the fact that he was at our door so we emailed our landlord. The situation usually occurs when he’s at work so I didn’t think he’d know anything about it. While he was here, he told us that sometimes homeless people try to get in the building to go squat in the upper story apartments. He said they’re harmless and won’t do anything to us. He wasn’t sure why the guy was at the door. He just said that he’ll call us if he’s coming over so we shouldn’t open the door if we’re not expecting anyone and we feel nervous about it. If things get out of control then we can install a peephole in the door. I discovered that in French they call it an oeil de boeuf (literally a cow’s eye). That had me laughing for a long time that night.

Adrienne and I felt comforted by M. Choupin’s reassurance and the fact that he seemed very concerned with our safety. We’ve really lucked out on having such a wonderful landlord. He even made sure we had the numbers for the police in France and in our neighborhood.

After M. Choupin left, we made some lunch. I showed Adrienne how to make popeyes so that we could use up the eggs. This is where you cut out a hole in a slice of bread, cook it in a pan with butter and crack an egg in the center. Yum.

Following lunch, I was on Skype and got to talk to my friend Amanda P. in Japan. We talked for at least two hours. I haven’t talked to her in a long time and it was fun to talk. I also did a little work around the apartment.

I got dressed up because Adrienne and I wanted to go out to eat and have some fun. We went to the Oberkampf metro stop and looked around for a cheaper place to eat. We ended up at an Italian restaurant. I ordered a pizza that came with onion, pepperoni, and peppers. It was good and I ate it all. I also had a tiny carafe of Sauvignon wine to drink. It had two and a half glasses in there. Adrienne ordered spaghetti with pine nuts and basil in it. I tasted it and it was amazing. Both dishes were very good. We had a nice waiter who was fun despite him speaking English to us. When waiters do that it reminds me that my accent has a long way to go.

After dinner, Adrienne and I walked toward the area where I’d gone out with friends previously. I showed her the two bars across the street from one another. One was named Café Charbon and the other was Chez Justine. We went into Chez Justine so that we could introduce Adrienne to the place. I ended up ordering a vin chaud because I’d really loved the one I had last time. It was just so nice to pick up a warm glass of red wine and taste the orange and other light flavors in it. The only problem was that it’s too hot to drink when you get it and it’s served in a normal glass instead of a mug. I guess you have to be really tough to drink vin chaud.

We left the bar and headed back home. After the wine with dinner and the hot wine, I was feeling mighty sleepy. We got on the metro and I felt like I was going to fall asleep on the way back. I managed to stay awake until we got home around 11:00pm.

I talked to my parents on Skype for a bit and went to bed around midnight. Nothing like a bit of wine to make me go to bed at a normal time.

February 22nd Friday

We slept in a little bit again. Renée had an early flight so she packed up her bags a little and left. Adrienne got up to help see Renée out. I got up a bit after and got ready for the day. I had some cereal for breakfast. We stayed in the apartment until around midday and had lunch here. It’s always nice to get back to our normal routines after a visit. The apartment always feels slightly packed when three people are sleeping in it.

At around 4:00pm I went to the library to work on my papers. The library closes at 6pm. The rules of this library are very frustrating. I like being able to go to the library at any time of day or night. The libraries at both UNCs were open very late. I’d rather go to the library in the evening than the morning. It’s strange adjusting my schedule to these weird hours. It makes me realize how American I am that I expect everything to be open and convenient to me. At the other libraries you could also check out books for a period of a few months. Here I can check it out for a week. It’s very nice knowing that if someone has a book you want that it will be back soon. But at the same time I want to be able to just have the books at my house to write out of them.

After the library, Adrienne and I went to Monoprix and got some groceries. We walked home from there and it felt like a long walk. The bags were heavy and I still had my laptop in my backpack from the library. I swear that thing all of a sudden gains 5 pounds when it wants to.

When we got back I decided to make something fun for dinner: crêpes! My original idea was to try to cook them with egg and ham and cheese like the crêpe vendors do. I got to work and mixed the crêpe batter. I was worried that I’d made it too watery but then it seemed to work okay. I made the crêpes and then once the first ones were made, simultaneously tried to cook other things in them. I put them into another pan and tried to cook an egg on top. I got the egg to cook but then the crêpe was a burnt mess. I threw away my first attempt and decided to say “screw it” to the eggs. I proceeded to make crêpes for Adrienne filled with chicken deli meat and the new red pepper eggplant sauce that we’d bought at Monoprix. In my crêpes I decided to fill them with ham and cheese. I’d bought some shredded emmental to put in. I also tried the sauce in some of them. Not to toot my own horn, but the crêpes came out very delicious. We still weren’t able to get rid of the eggs but we made a very yummy and fun dinner thanks to my new crêpe pan. I saved one crêpe each for dessert. Adrienne filled hers with jam and I filled mine with nutella. I tried to heat the jar up by putting it on the stovetop near the warm pans. Nutella is just yummier when it’s been melted a little. It’s also easier to spread.

After our foodgasms had subsided, Amanda came over to watch a movie with us. Her roommate Heidi was in Germany so she wanted to get out and not be alone. Amanda brought a lot of movies with her. We settled on a French film called Tanguy. Since it’s French, we were able to watch it on our television. We all settled down on the big bed and watched it. The movie was pretty funny but still had that French element that makes you go “What the hell is going on right now?” It’s about a man named Tanguy who is a 28 year old student and still lives with his parents. They try to sabotage him to make him move out on his own, but he still stays. Then they just get him an apartment and agree to pay for it. He proceeds to have panic attacks and ends up in the hospital. They can’t get rid of him. Finally they family is just acting ridiculous. I’ve heard that the American film “Failure to Launch” was based on this film.

We had fun watching the movie and then talking about how weird some of it was. We had to watch it without subtitles so we rehashed some of the parts that went by too fast. We sat around talking for a while and brought up the subject of our latest houseguest. It was just a strange situation having a stranger come stay with us for almost five days. Amanda had to cut us off so that she could catch the last metro home.

I got to talk to my friend Tom online and I talked to my parents on Skype. Then I went to bed, as usual, in the wee hours of the late night/morning.

February 21st Thursday

We didn’t have much scheduled for this day because we didn’t have class. We got up kind of late around 11:00 or 12:00. I had some cereal and yogurt for breakfast.

Renée had talked about going to Eurodisney today but she slept in later than she’d planned. We all stayed around the apartment for a little bit to get showered and dressed.

Then in the afternoon, we went to an office at 13 rue de l’Université. There was supposedly an office there that would help Sciences Po students with the carte de séjour process. We didn’t quite know what to expect but ended up faced with a pleasant woman named Veronique Lebrun. I had forgotten my folder of documents at home so we’d have to go back, but she told us what we’d need just so we’d know. We needed to get an envelope of a certain size with a return slip.

We went back to the apartment so that I could grab my documents. Then we ran to the post office so that we could buy the envelope, stamps, and notice of receipt. I also purchased €75 for my cell phone. When I purchase €75 it gives me €25 extra for a total of €100.

With our documents and envelopes in hand, we went back to the office before it closed. We had to fill out a form and get it all arranged. The situation turned out to be very pleasant. There was no ridiculous line to wait in. The woman was nice and very helpful. She even went into another office to make copies for us when we realized that one of the forms was different. I couldn’t believe our program had no idea that this service was available for all foreign students of Sciences Po. This was so much easier than the hell that is the prefecture office. France is crazy sometimes.

We had successfully submitted our forms for the carte de séjour!! We had to go through a different avenue but it was a point for us against French bureaucracy. We decided to go to the BHV store for a few things and to look for lunch in the area. We waited in the hectic line for the Brioche Dorée. I thought it was way too late for a lunch crowd until I realized we’d waited until the dinner crowd. It was 6:00pm. No wonder I felt so hungry! I was getting shaky from not eating.

I ordered a tuna baguette sandwich along with a peach tea and a raspberry tart. The sandwich was good and the tuna was a fun change of pace. The tart was very good if a little difficult to eat without a fork. We ate sitting on the edge of a fountain by the Hôtel de Ville.

We went into BHV to look for various items that some of us needed. Renée was looking for some superglue to glue her boot together. I ended up buying two boxes of Oreos and a cheap Sarah Brightman CD.

We made our way back home. I typed up an email about the experience at the office for the carte de séjour as well as the list of things we needed. Amanda, a TAM student, was wondering if she could go through the process too. Meanwhile Renée did laundry in our machine.

I had some yogurt to snack on while I talked to people online. I got to talk to Megan and be excited about my tickets to see her in Scotland. I also got to talk to my parents on Skype and my brother and Tom online. I also wrote a letter to Maura to say thank you for the wonderful necklace that she’d sent to me. It had arrived somewhere around the 18th of February. It was a very cute Eiffel tower on a long chain with some other sparkles dangling off. I really like it so it was fun writing a letter of thanks to her.

We managed to get to bed at around 2:00am.

February 20th Wednesday

I got up at 9:00am and gave the new cereal another chance. It still needs a little sugar.

We walked to our regular class building to meet up with our professor. Today we had a field trip to the UNAF (Union nationale des associations familiales) building. The UNAF is the national group of family associations. They look out for families in situations and laws. I found the trip very interesting because I researched a lot about parental leave and the CAF (caisse d’allocations familials). The CAF gives money to families for housing. Students can ask for some of the CAF too usually. It was an interesting visit and I enjoyed learning in a different environment. We learned that the 4 missions of the UNAF are to (1) represent all the families of France, (2) give an opinion on the public power of families, (3) develop services for families, and (4) to be a party to legal proceedings.

After we finished at the UNAF it was time for lunch. We didn’t have class with Irondelle that day so we could kill a little time. Adrienne, Renée, Amanda, and I decided to try to find a restaurant or café in that area. We ended up going into a Lebanese restaurant. I paid €4.50 for a pita sandwich. It had seasoned chicken, hummus, lettuce, tzatziki, and potatoes in it. I really liked the flavor and the price was pretty good.

When we were taking the metro back Renée decided to go off on her own to do something. Adrienne and I went back to the apartment. Whenever we have a guest I usually end up sharing my bed. It’s hard for me to sleep with someone at night so I was kind of tired. I researched for a little bit and then took a nap.

Renée came back from her outing and we snacked on baguette and cheese while we discussed dinner possibilities. We ended up taking the metro to the Bastille stop. We looked at some of the restaurants and settled on the Hippopotamus restaurant. It’s a chain in France that’s fun to see. It kind of has a feel of an upscale Red Robin. They had the Hippo Duo and Hippo Trio that let you order 2 or 3 courses. I started with soupe à l’oignon. Then I had a steak with pepper sauce that came with fries. We also ordered a small carafe of red wine to go with it. The dinner was delicious. I had not had a steak in a while. Renée bought us dinner to thank us for letting her stay. It was a very nice gesture.

After dinner we decided to go looking around the area. We walked along the streets and ended up rediscovering the Café Iguana. We went in and decided that Renée and I would each order a B’52 drink. We had an English speaking bartender this time. He got the drinks to stay on fire longer. He told us that we were supposed to drink it like a shot but through a straw. I had sipped the drink the last time I had it. It seemed a waste to drink it in one go but we decided to give it a try. I drank it but then my throat felt like it was burning. The drink stayed very hot from being lit on fire. I preferred letting the fire go out and then sipping it. I could feel the heat traveling all the way down my throat.

It was a fun experience but then it was time to go home. We took the metro to our Solférino stop and went to bed a little after 1:00am.

February 19th Tuesday

Adrienne got up early to be at the carte de séjour office at 8:30am. Renée and I stayed at the apartment. I got up at 9:30am. Adrienne came back and told us that she arrived at the office and they told her that they weren’t accepting appointments this week. She should come back next week. Arrrgh! What is wrong with these people? I’m beginning to hate them.

I had a bowl of a new cereal. It looks like it’s pretty high in fiber. I had to put in some sugar to make it taste better. I’m used to really sweet cereals. We got ready and I tried to read a little for class. We had class with Grossman today at 2:45pm. We had some ratatouille and some couscous for lunch. Then we had Renée email our professor Padis to ask if she could come along on our little field trip the next day.

Adrienne and Renée went to the school to try and print some things. I stayed behind to try to read. We met up again for class. We discussed Europeanization and Globalization. I must admit that for much of the lecture I was kind of confused about the topic.

We went back to the apartment after class. Adrienne talked to her parents on Skype. She was upset about the situation with her boyfriend and needed to talk to them about it. I left briefly and bought a baguette at the boulangerie and some cheese at the 8 à Huit. Renée and I snacked on that while we waited for Adrienne to finish talking to her folks. We were talking about going to a restaurant but ended up staying at home to cook. I took Renée to the store to get ingredients. We bought some chicken legs (because the breasts were lacking) and a few potatoes to augment what we had.
We came back and Renée made us a Greek dish for dinner. She put the chicken legs on a baking sheet with slices of potato. Then she drizzled olive oil on it along with lemon juice, pepper, salt, and oregano. We made a spinach salad to go with it and settled down to eat while watching Moulin Rouge.

I got to talk to my parents on Skype after the movie. I wanted to talk to them about my Scotland options. After I talked to them, I went in and bought my plane ticket to Scotland! It cost a total of about €96. It’s expensive for Ryanair, but I still think it was worth it. I would be traveling Feb. 27th through March 2nd. I was only buying the tickets a week in advance. We think the prices were high because it was also vacations for French universities.

I got to talk to Tom online after I made my purchase. He had just returned from a trip to Canada. He told me the crazy news that he’d gotten in a car accident on his drive up. He’s okay but he had to fly back because the car doesn’t fit in the “functioning” category any more. I was so glad to hear he made it back in one piece.

I tried to read for a bit before bed. I went to bed around 2:30 or 3:00.

February 18th Monday

I got up at 8:30am and tried to do some research. I was trying to find out more about women in politics in order to figure out what angle I wanted to write my paper from. I ate a yogurt for breakfast and got ready.
Adrienne and I walked to class. I was very nervous because I still didn’t have a research question. Finally, we were in Ms. Boussaguet’s class and it was time for me to share my topic. I told her that I hadn’t figured out how to word my question differently but I had thought about how I wanted to research it. I still had my original question of “How have women advanced in the two parties in government in France?” but I knew what angle I wanted to research from. I wanted to look at it from the women’s perspective. I wanted to see what women do themselves to get into politics. I managed to survive the class. She seemed okay with my question and told me that sometimes you can keep a really general question and then narrow it after more research.

After class I went with some of my classmates in search of food at the cafeteria. Unfortunately, it was vacation for the rest of the school so the cafeteria was closed. We ended up going to the café on the corner near the school. I ordered a curry chicken sandwich for myself and one for Karuna. We went back to the cafeteria to eat at the tables there. I was starving after only eating a yogurt for breakfast so I ate my sandwich there. Then Adrienne and I went back to the apartment so that we could deliver the sandwich to Karuna.

Karuna was going to meet her friend Natalie near Châtelet and I came along. She packed up her bags and took them with her so that she could leave straight from there. We met up with Natalie and the three of us went to a nearby café. I ordered some hot chocolate. It was very good but I burned my tongue on the first sip.

We sat there for a while and talked. It was an interesting neighborhood. Eventually Karuna had to go to the airport to catch her flight and Natalie had to go to work. We paid for the drinks and went on our way.

On our walk back toward the metro we passed the Centre Pompidou. I had only seen it in pictures before. It’s a crazy building with strange pipes on the outside. We also passed by some strange looking fountains. We stopped at a Panini stand. Karuna and I were feeling kind of hungry so we split a 3 cheese Panini.

Natalie got on the metro while Karuna and I hopped on the RER. I got off at the Musée d’Orsay stop and Karuna continued on to the airport. I walked home and met up with Adrienne. We decided to go to Franprix and get some grocery shopping done. On the way there, I dropped the cards to Amanda and Mormor into the mail box.

While we were looking around in the store, we got a call from Karuna. She was worried about traffic and asked us to look up flights for her in case she missed it. I told her we were in the store but once we got back we could look and see what there was. That’s what we did once we got back to the apartment. Thankfully, we got a call from Karuna saying that she made it on the plane but just barely.

Adrienne and I made dinner for ourselves. We had some bowtie pasta with chicken. I cut an onion up to put in the tomato sauce. I drank milk with it. We were awaiting a houseguest that would be staying with us until Friday. We didn’t know her so we weren’t sure what to expect.

Finally, Renée got in. We met her at the metro and showed her up. She hadn’t eaten so we fed her some soup. We tried to get to know each other a little.

I got to talk to Megan online. I’ve been trying to figure out when to go to Scotland and visit her. We got to talk about the possible dates a little bit.

I went to bed around 12:30am.

February 17th Sunday

I slept in even later than the previous day. I didn’t get up until 1:00pm. I had cereal and a yogurt for breakfast. I typed in my journal for a little while.

When lunch time came around I made myself the package of chicken nuggets. They had two sauces in them. One was a sweet and sour sauce and the other was a barbecue sauce. I made some rice that turned out very bad. We had just discovered that it does not pay off to buy the cheapest rice out there. It was very crunchy despite putting in the proper amount of water.

I made myself some hot chocolate after lunch. Hot chocolate is very yummy here but that could be because I’m always making it with either half or whole milk. Either way, it’s delicious.

I got to talk to my friend Amanda on Skype. She’s teaching English in Japan right now. I hadn’t gotten to talk to her much since she left in August. It was fun to touch base again. While I was talking to her I wrote on two of the stamped postcards. I wrote one to Amanda and one to my Mormor.

After I talked to Amanda I listened to some music. I was enjoying my new Across the Universe soundtrack. Then in the late afternoon, our landlord M. Choupin came by. He brought by the original of his gas bill. That was one of the reasons for Adrienne’s latest rejections at the carte de séjour office. We needed to have the original gas bill as well as the copies. Later, M. Choupin’s son Luc came over too. They were going to try to put up the curtain on our window by the front door. M. Choupin had found the screws that he needed. It was fun watching them because the slightly bickered as they put up the curtain. The two of them are very similar. It was also funny to hear our proper landlord muttering “Ah putain!”

After they left, Adrienne and I were waiting for Karuna to have dinner. We didn’t hear from her for a long time and we got hungry. We went ahead and made some of our vegetable soup. I had some goat cheese and crackers on the side. Afterward, I got to talk to my parents on Skype. The quality is bad but I am really glad I get to talk to them this often.

Karuna returned in the evening and we made some dinner. We made a mixture of some ground beef, ratatouille, and the bad rice. The other food was able to mask the bad rice. It turned out pretty good. Karuna and I had some wine with dinner. Unfortunately, since I’d had a glass of wine, I couldn’t focus on my assignment that I was supposed to do that night. I was supposed to research my topic a bit in order to come up with a better topic and research question.

After dinner we tried to help Adrienne out by talking to her. She was very upset about a situation with her boyfriend. Karuna and I tried to cheer her up a little.

Finally we went to bed. I hadn’t managed to get my work done but I would do it in the morning.

February 16th Saturday

I slept in until noon. Whenever that happens I always hear my parents’ teasing me in my head. I’m sure they’ll learn how to sleep in someday.

I had some cereal and yogurt. I typed on my journal for a little while. I’d been having the songs from Across the Universe going through my head. I’d tried to buy it before but couldn’t get my credit card number to work. I tried my debit card instead and was able to purchase the album. I love new music.

For lunch I made the most amazing sandwich I have ever made in my life. It included the roasted chicken, tomato, spinach leaves, a slice of Gouda, and a pepper cheese spread. It was very delicious. It was the most gourmet sandwich I’ve ever made. I don’t normally have all those ingredients just lying around. It helped to have leftovers from a nice dinner.

I took a shower and put some pictures on my computer and online. I needed to clear out my camera because now I was headed to the Jardin de Tuileries. These are the gardens that are located north of our apartment across the Seine. It was a beautiful day out. It wasn’t too cold and the sky was a bright blue. I used the pedestrian bridge that our landlord told us about. It did indeed allow me to cross underneath the large street and end up inside the gardens.

I turned left and started walking toward the west end of the gardens. The trees were all bare because it’s still winter, but I can tell that they are going to be beautiful once they get leaves again. They are all arranged in straight lines. Eventually, I came upon a fountain in a large circular pool. It was surrounded by statues. They had names like Autumn, Spring, Silence, and Julius Cesar. I couldn’t resist taking pictures of them. I took lots of pictures of the fountain and the people around it. I even played with the timer and remote that came with it to take pictures of myself there.

I continued walking along the northern part of the garden. I came upon a children’s play area. There was a group of trampolines set into the ground where children could jump on them. They just paid an admission fee. Then I came up on the carousel. There was a carousel full of smiling children and parents. I was tempted by the Barbe à Papa (cotton candy, literally papa’s beard). I wanted to buy myself one but there wasn’t a man at the stand at the moment and I didn’t want to wait around for too long.

I found many more statues and ponds in the gardens. It’s all very beautiful. I recommend it to anyone coming to Paris. It’s a very calm and peaceful way to be a tourist. It’s fun to see all the people there. I was surprised how crowded it was. I suppose it was a Saturday but I thought it would be emptier in the winter.

I found another fountain and pool with more statues surrounding it. This fountain had little remote controlled boats that you could rent and race around the basin. I took a few pictures of the boats and the surrounding statues. As I was taking a picture of the statue called “Cassandra puts herself under the protection of Pallas” a man tried to get my attention. He wanted to know when the Musée d’Orsay closed. I told him I wasn’t sure what time it closed but I would guess 8:00pm. He said “Ça m’étonnerait. Normalement ça ferme plus tôt.” (That would stun me. Normally it closes earlier.) Then he looked at me and said “Oh are you foreign?” (in French still of course.) I said yes and then he tried to guess where I was from. He guessed Russia or Poland. He said my accent was like those and that I paid attention to the words like a Russian. I laughed and told him that I was American. This surprised him and he told me that I spoke French very well for an American. Normally Americans can’t seem to make the right sounds. I said that this was because the sounds are so different. He replied that that was why the French couldn’t speak English either. He thanked me for my time and wished me a good afternoon. It left me feeling rather good about my French.

I got home and then Karuna arrived shortly after. It was her first time back since she’d left right after Valentine’s dinner. The two of us went to meet her friend Paul for dinner near his place. We went to one of the Chinese restaurants. I ordered curry rice and chicken with black mushrooms. I had an orange Fanta to drink. We had a fun dinner and Karuna and Paul got to talk a bit. Karuna was excited because she had a gala to go to that night.

We had to leave so that Karuna could get ready. We went home and got to work curling her hair while she put makeup on. It was pretty chaotic. We called her a cab while she finished getting ready. She ran down, hopped in and rode off. The whole whirlwind took about ten minutes.

Adrienne and I had a fine night by ourselves. I got to talk to my parents online. We were up ridiculously late not doing anything particularly special. I didn’t get to bed until after 4:30am.

February 15th Friday

I was able to sleep in until about 11:00am. I felt like I was dead when I woke up. Adrienne had gone to the prefecture to try to get her carte de séjour. She was rejected once again. This time I believe it was because she did not have the right kind of proof of admission to Sciences Po. It was quite frustrating.

I had an interesting breakfast of onion soup, bread, crackers and goat cheese. I had some juice to drink. For some reason, goat cheese was comforting when I wasn’t feeling well.

We got dressed and went to the bank. We turned in our form that our landlord signed. They said that now our forms are all good. We just need to wait for them to be processed and for the cards to come in. While leaving I saw the crêpe stand across the street. We made a detour by there so that I could get a nutella banana crêpe. It was quite delicious. As we walked I told Adrienne that when I’m rich I’m going to have a personal crêpe chef with his own stand. I’ll walk down in the morning and he’ll say “Bonjour Madame! Ça va?” I will reply, “Oui ça va. Et vous?” “Ça va bien, merci.” Then I’ll ask for a jam or nutella crêpe. Ahh yes.

We stopped by to grab a baguette at the boulangerie. Then we stopped in the 8 à Huit to get some chicken nuggets before heading up to the apartment.

I made us a dinner of couscous with raisins in it. Then I cut off some chicken from the second one that we didn’t even touch the night before. I put those pieces on top of the couscous.

After lunch I read for fun for a little while. All work and no play… I got to talk to my mom as well as my friend Peter.

As a small dinner I had some soup and baguette. I typed in my journal for a little while. I didn’t go to bed until about 3:00am.

February 14th Thursday

We had decided to go to the Carte de Séjour office again now that we had all of our documents. I got up at 8:30am and had some cereal. I felt like I was the walking dead. Adrienne and I split up to do separate things. Adrienne went to the school to make copies of our letters for the Carte de Séjour. I ran to the post office to pick up my mail. The morning was cold and foggy. We haven’t had many mornings that foggy. I could see my breath puffing out as I walked. I made it to the post office and got my letter. It was a piece of mail from the bank that they needed me to sign for. I went and took the metro to the Sèvres-Babylone stop and waited for Adrienne to join me. It was my first time using the ticket and I ended up having to get a new one because I had demagnetized it. Luckily I’d already put my picture over Amanda’s in the little card that comes with it.

I met up with Adrienne on the metro and we headed to the office. Sadly, we’d been so slow getting ready and doing our other errands that we didn’t get to the office until 11:00. There was a line out the door and the hours said it would only be open until noon. We realized we couldn’t make it in so we decided to do it the next day. I stomped off and threw a mini tantrum because I had gotten up early for nothing. I just felt so tired! Of course, there was always the Franprix right there to cheer me up. We bought some groceries there which included pasta, rice, sauces, spices, and peach candy.

We carried it back on the metro and got home. I cooked up some of my Parisian mixture for lunch. Then I went online and researched how I could bake two whole chickens. I’d only ever worked with chicken breasts before. I also emailed my mom to see what advice she had.

I did a quick cleaning of the apartment to make sure it would be ready for our guests. I swept the floors and put away all of my things.

Then it was time. I rinsed the chickens and placed them on the baking pan. I then cut up an onion and stuffed it in the cavities. I used our typical Thanksgiving trick and rubbed olive oil over them to help the spices stick. We don’t have many spices so I used what we had. I seasoned them with pepper, salt, garlic, and paprika. I popped them in the oven and went to take a shower.

While in the shower, I heard Karuna arrive. She had just flown in from Spain. I said hi to her once I was out and dressed. Then I set about making our side dishes. I made garlic mashed potatoes from scratch. We had some frozen carrot slices that I heated up in some butter. I also prepared the spinach we had for a salad.

The chickens were done and I cut into them just to make sure they were cooked. When I pierced the skin, a bunch of juices poured out. They’d been wrapped so tight with string from the store, it held in all the juice. I placed them aside with some tented foil to keep them warm until Heidi showed up.

She eventually did and we set the table. I had bought two bottles of red wine called Passion Vin Pour Deux. We dug into our meals. It turned out amazing! I was so glad that everything worked out. I was worried about my timing but things stayed hot. After dinner we had some cookies and our chocolate hearts. The hearts turned out to be hollow with little fruit gels inside.

As we finished dinner, Karuna left. Heidi stayed and we started talking Valentine’s talk. We traded stories about the most romantic thing a guy’s ever done for us. It was fun to relive those cute memories. We were briefly interrupted when M. Choupin dropped by with the bank forms that he’d signed. It was nice to have the final forms for the bank accounts.

We talked a bit longer with Heidi about the uprising we’d had in class the other day. It was pretty funny to talk about the differences we’d noticed. Heidi had to leave a little after midnight to catch the metro.

It was late and I decided not to go to the prefecture the next morning. I could go the next week. I got online and got to talk to my brother. I don’t get to talk to him very often so it’s nice when I do.

We went to bed around 3:00am.

February 13th Wednesday

I got up around 9:00am and had some cereal for breakfast. Adrienne and I walked to class. We had class with Padis first. In here we had an interesting side discussion spring up about how in the states you have to check a box saying whether you were ever convicted of a felony when you’re applying for a job.

After class we went to the cafeteria. I got a four cheese Panini for lunch. They heated it up and made all the cheeses melty. I also bought an orange juice. The sandwich was very good. Again, it was a good change from the ham sandwiches. I sat down and ate with Heidi and Amanda. Soon Katharina joined us too. We ate and chatted and then Amanda and Heidi went to the library to do some work. Professor Irondelle had told us that we could try to get our subjects into him today. It didn’t sound like he expected them all today. He seemed open to being told the subjects later.

Katharina stuck around for a while before running off as well. I stayed to charge my computer for the next class and to try to finish the reading. I saw Yannick in the cafeteria as well. He got his lunch and came to sit with me. Eventually Katharina returned. Then the silliness with the webcams started. Our laptops have webcams in them so we started taking silly pictures of each other. It was a good way to blow off steam before the next class.

We had our class with Irondelle next. I found out that the research subjects were more required than I thought. I would have to write it and send it to him that night. I also witnessed something I’d like to call a cultural event. One of the readings we were about to discuss in class treated the decline of France. The author, Kramer, blamed the decline mostly on Chirac. He also made the claim that French immigrants now have it worse than the blacks during the civil rights movement in a way. I could understand the idea that the author was going for, but there still wasn’t a comparison. Many students in the class did not like the reading and strongly disagreed with it. When we began discussion Matteo led the charge with a little speech directed at the professor that amounted to “Who do you think you are making us read this? This reading was poorly written and the author presents stupid ideas.” He was able to get some of the other European students to join in and voice similar ideas. The Americans sat back and watched in a kind of horror. I couldn’t believe students were talking to a professor like that. It just really surprised me. From what I’ve seen in the states, if students disagree with a reading, they say why. They don’t ever attack the professor for having assigned it. It was very strange. I talked to the other Americans after class and they had the same feelings as me. We wondered if it was a European thing. Did average French students behave the same?

Luckily, the professor kind of steepled his fingers and smiled, letting the students get it out. Then he told us that he assigned the reading because it was a very influential article. It was the first in its area to be published in the US. People in the states were trying to understand what was happening in Europe. He conceded that the author may have indulged in a little controversial language, but that was probably because it was an article published in Foreign Affairs. We were able to move past that and discuss the article but people kept throwing out comments about how stupid the author was or how poorly written the article was.

At the end of class I had a different kind of exchange with Amanda. She had purchased a Navigo yearly metro pass and they told her it wouldn’t be ready for a month. She went ahead and bought a February month metro pass. Then she got her Navigo pass very quickly. She offered to let me buy the month pass for €10. I jumped at the opportunity because even if the month was almost half over, the pass is originally over €55. I ended up buying it for €14 because she only had €6 change for my 20. It was still an awesome deal. I’m debating whether or not to get a yearly pass or to just go monthly at this point.

Adrienne and I walked home and stopped by the boulangerie along the way. We bought a baguette and (since the next day would be Valentine’s Day) two chocolate hearts. The store was decked out with chocolate hearts everywhere. We bought the tiny ones.

We took those home and dropped off our backpacks and computers. Our next stop was at Franprix to get groceries. I bought some different cheeses and wines. I was planning a big dinner for Valentine’s Day so I needed to get some ingredients. I bought two whole chickens. One unfortunate event occurred while shopping there. I was examining a case of milk and apparently made it nervous because the next thing I knew it was peeing on me. There was a hole in one of the boxes and as soon as I picked it up it started to leek. I put down the case and went to the front to tell them. They gave me some paper towels to wipe off the front of my jacket. I led the clerk back so he could see where the spill was. He teased me by saying “On va chercher le balai à laver et vous pouvez le nettoyer?” (We’ll get the mop and you can clean it up ‘kay?) The rest of the shopping trip happened without incident. We made our way home.

For dinner I made a hamburger patty with cheese on top. I made green beans to go with it and also had baguette with my new cheeses. I had some goat cheese and some Rondelé red pepper cheese spread. I had a little bit of chocolate for dessert.

After dinner I tried to figure out what subject I wanted to research for Irondelle’s class. I got distracted a bit but then kept researching. I had a general idea of looking at the environment and the EU but I needed to figure out a more precise question.

M. Choupin dropped by to say hi and give me a mail slip that had been put in his mailbox. We also told him that we went to the bank and they said that they needed him to fill out their form instead of the letter we gave them. He agreed to look at the forms so we gave those to him. We also gave him some Spanish chocolate that we’d bought on our trip. Karuna told us that he’d said we were too timid and he was worried we were afraid of him. I wanted to be able to show him that we weren’t scared of him, just trying to respect his privacy.

M. Choupin left and I got back to researching. I ended up calling my parents around midnight to try to get some help talking out my question. It helps me to talk out problems to my parents. Even if they don’t have much to add, it helps me think. I’m sure they can expect calls from me even after I become a career woman. I’ll say “Dad, can you help me think how I should word my speech for the next EU talk?”

They did indeed help me talk out my problems and figure out how to word my question. We talked it out until 1:00am. I wrote out my question and sent it in an email to my professor. I didn’t get to bed until around 3:00am.

February 12th Tuesday

I had started to feel sick before bed so I slept in until 11:00am. I had a sore throat when I woke up but I felt much better. I was able to eat my cereal for breakfast. I finished off the little bit of fruit cereal I had left and ate some chocolate cereal.

I got ready and read for a bit before walking to class. We had Grossman’s class where we discussed interest groups and social movements. I also made a helpful vocabulary discovery. All of my teachers had been using the term “grosso modo.” I was finally able to look it up and found out that it means “roughly or roughly speaking.” It helped me understand so much more that way. They really did use the term a lot.

After class we walked home. I had received a slip from the post office saying they had a package for me at the office. I went by with my ID and picked it up. It was a package from my parents. I was so excited that I opened it while I walked home. It turned out to be a pair of earrings. They were silver and had my birthstone (peridot) incorporated into the design. They were hand-made in Israel. I was really excited and went home to take pictures of me wearing them to send back to my parents. One the way to the apartment I bought a baguette at the corner boulangerie.

I showed off the earrings to Adrienne and then the two of us had a simple dinner of vegetable soup and bread with cheese.

I tried to read for a while. I also was on my computer a lot. I organized the pictures we’d taken. I went to bed after 1:00am

February 11th Monday

Unfortunately, Adrienne and I had to get up for class. We got up around 9:00am. I had my usual chocolate cereal before we walked to class.

Class with Mme Boussaguet went well. I was glad that we’d changed our flight plans so that we wouldn’t miss it. It’s helpful getting criticism on our research questions.

After class we went to the cafeteria to buy cheap sandwiches. We saw Alberto there and chatted with him a bit before heading home to eat lunch. I had bought a chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and hardboiled egg on it. I drank some orange juice.

Adrienne and I went back toward school to go visit Astrid. She had translated our birth certificates into French so that we didn’t have to pay €50 to have it done. To say thank you, we gave her a pair of earrings that Adrienne had bought at the market in Spain. They’re shiny blue and go with Astrid’s style we think. She was very touched to receive them.

Adrienne headed back toward home. I talked to Heidi on the phone because she’d been thinking of going to the Père Lachaise cemetery and I wanted to go with. I took the metro and met up with Heidi. We took a few different lines out to end up at the cemetery. We popped out of the metro right by a newsstand. Heidi bought a map of the cemetery from the guy here.

We crossed the street and encountered another man selling maps. He was actually associated with the cemetery. I was holding Heidi’s map and looking at it. He saw it and grumbled something about a bad map. We went through the stone archway and up the steps into the cemetery. We looked at the map and I decided that I wanted one of my own as a souvenir. I went back out to the map guy. “Un plan s’il vous plait.” (A map, please.) He asked me which language I wanted. I said that French was fine. He looked at me as if to say “you’ve got to be kidding me.” He took the map and showed me all the features. It had an index of names on the left and right sides as well as their locations on the map. There was a key for the scale of the map. On the back there was a history of the cemetery. He folded it up and grumpily handed it to me, “et maintenant vous avez un bon plan.” (and now you have a good map.)

Our first stop was at the restrooms in the corner of the map near the entrance before venturing out. We looked at names and tried to navigate through the cemetery. The cemetery was built like a little city. There were streets and lanes with names and signs. We started with the mausoleums and large graves that reminded me of houses and mansions before moving to the more apartment-like crematorium. It was kind of like we were looking up people from the past that happened to all rest in the same neighborhood. We started with a visit to Héloïse and Abélard. Heidi told me that they were lovers from the 12th century. They had statues of themselves lying on top of the grave under a large structure.

We walked onward and found that we were near Jim Morrison’s grave. We tried to navigate through the narrow walkways to find him. We must have looked somewhat lost because a construction man who seemed to be working on helping to clean the graves asked us who we were looking for. Were we looking for Jeem Morreeson? We nodded and he cheerfully pointed us in the right direction. The grave was relatively small and tucked back among other graves. It was surrounded by metal guard rails. Heidi and I arrived just in time to see a woman climb over them in order to put a bottle of wine on top of the grave. We waited our turn until we could go up and take pictures. There were lots of flowers and candles there. We felt sorry for his neighbor who looked like he’d had plenty of feet on him trying to get to Morrison.

We moved on and headed to a very interesting section of graves. We were going to see Chopin. There was a statue of a woman holding a harp on top of his grave. It reminded me of a muse. There were some other impressive graves on the same row. One belonged to Denon and had a metal statue which I assume was in his likeness. There was also a grave that had a sculpture that looked like the bottom half of a man’s torso and the top of his legs in a sitting position. Out of the top there was a paint palette and brush along with something that looked like fence slats. It was a very interesting sculpture. I tried to read the name but even though the grave appeared recent, the name had been rubbed out by rain and plant growth.

It was around this point when I was simply struck with the beauty of it all. I never thought that cemeteries could be beautiful. I thought they should be sad and gloomy from the pain of those lost that lingers there. Some of the graves were very recent and had flowers completely covering them. Those tugged at my heart and made me sad. They let you know that someone nearby was grieving. But when it came to the much older graves, they seemed more like monuments in a museum. There’s an amount of distance that makes it more interesting than sad. The cemetery was just beautiful. Since it was afternoon, the sunlight slanted through the naked trees and created beams of light. Some of the graves had trees that had taken them over. The roots covered most of the stone. We also saw some broken graves. The stone slab that covers the top was broken and the pieces dipped into the ground. It was an interesting sight to see the evidence of the earth actually taking these people back.

Some of the other people we visited included La Fontaine, Molière, Sarah Bernhardt, Imre Nagy (revolutionary of Hungary), Allan Kardec, and Oscar Wilde. Kardec’s grave had a small group clustered there. People would walk up and touch the stone. Some would cross themselves. We found out later that people do this for luck. Oscar Wilde’s grave was covered with lipstick marks. I figured that kissing the Blarney Stone was as far as I’d go with kissing stone that thousands of other people have kissed.

We went to the crematorium near the end. We went downstairs to see what it looked like. Each person (or couple) had a rectangular box in the wall where their ashes were placed and then they had a plaque with the names on it on the front. The plaque looked like a little over one square foot. It was much colder underground. While we were looking a man came up to tell us that he was going to close it up in 30 minutes. He said “Well you can stay here if you want.” That idea gave Heidi and me (especially me) the creeps. I couldn’t imagine being locked in such a cold building in the dark. I doubted they’d leave any lights on down there. Someone would probably also be shut in there for over 12 hours. They close it around 5:30pm and I doubt they open it at that time in the morning. Even though we had a half an hour more, we only spent another five minutes before heading out.

It was getting near 6:00pm when they close the cemetery. There were cars and people on little motor-scooters going through to let everyone know that they were locking the place up. Heidi and I made our way out the door with the other stragglers. We considered getting a drink around there but just got on the metro to go home. The cemetery was a ways away from my apartment. We made a few different connections on the metro. When I was walking between one line to my 12 line, my head started pounding and my throat felt really dry. I’d been thirsty walking around the cemetery but I didn’t have anything to drink. I finally got home and chugged a glass of water down.

Adrienne was home and cooked our Basque Chicken blend for dinner. She was very sweet to make dinner and do the dishes while I lied down to get my head to stop pounding. After we ate I showed her some music and pictures from the musical Wicked. Some of the songs had been in my head recently.

I talked to my parents on Skype for a while and read for class. I made it to bed a bit after 1:00am.

February 10th Sunday

Our flight home was scheduled for 5:00 that evening so we wanted to pack in as much Madrid as possible. We got up a bit before 9:00 and got ready to go find churros. We walked down along the street and ended up going to a touristy restaurant hoping that would mean they had them. They did not. What they did have were purros. These are very similar but larger and possibly greasier. I ordered the breakfast that had a glass of juice, hot chocolate, and purros. Since we all ordered purros, they brought them out on a big plate for us all to share. I discovered the best way to eat them was to dip them in the thick hot chocolate. It was quite delicious. The flavors went very well together. We enjoyed our breakfast and lingered in the restaurant a little longer than we had maybe intended. We still wanted to see other things.

After breakfast we decided to hit the botanical gardens for a little while. The entry fee only turned out to be €1 since we are students. We walked around for a while and saw a garden that was not spectacular but had the potential to be so once plants started blooming. The interesting part that we did find was the greenhouse along the edge of the garden. It had a different room for each climate. There was a desert room with huge cacti. There were other more tropical ones too. In one of the tropical ones, it seemed like there was something growing on every inch of surface. The walls were covered with green.

We eventually had to leave to go meet Maria. She was going to show us a giant open-air market that’s only open on Sundays. We took the metro to get there. This place was packed. I felt like a fish swimming upstream. It was very difficult to keep a group of four together in the large mass of people. The street was lined with vendors. They were selling all kinds of things such as clothing, movies, and souvenirs. The prices were right too. I ended up buying a blue and gold scarf for €2. Adrienne bought some earrings as presents. We spent a lot of time elbowing through the crowd. I had only brought a large sweater to Spain. I ended up stripping down to my T-shirt because of the warm sun. I couldn’t believe how warm it was in February. It got up to 17⁰ C.

We ended up stopping in a bar to get some refreshments before heading to the airport. I had an orange juice. We also ordered potatoes in a garlic cream sauce as well as bread with an onion cheese spread on it. We were pretty hungry and thirsty. Soon we had to hurry out and make it back to the apartment so we could make it to the airport.

We hopped on the metro and took it back to the Atocha Renfe stop. As Adrienne and I did some last minute packing, Karuna fixed us more food for lunch. She had some blueberry soup that she heated up. It was actually quite tasty. Maria made some chicken nuggets for all of us. Karuna sent us off with a slice of sandwich bread wrapped around a hunk of chocolate. It’s apparently a European treat for kids. Adrienne and I kind of looked at each other and set into eating the strange treat.

We rushed out of the apartment and decided that it was too late for us to take the metro. Karuna helped us flag down a taxi. We hopped in and told him to go to the airport. I got nervous and double checked with the driver that there was only one airport since I couldn’t remember the proper name of it. He affirmed that there was only one. This was another moment that I was glad that I could speak some Spanish. The ride didn’t take very long at all. It ended up costing €20. I didn’t care as long as we caught our flight.

We made it with plenty of time and found our terminal. We were on the plane and ready to go by 17:10. I listened to music for most of the flight.
Eventually we landed in Beauvais. We found the bus back and got on it. We sat separately but it was only one row difference. I ended up dozing for much of the ride. Car and bus trips often make me very sleepy. Plus, we still had not recovered from our lack of sleep Thursday night.

We made it to the bus stop and got all ready to take the RER trains back. But, once we got into the station they had an announcement that said that a “social movement” was affecting the traffic of the RER C line. They didn’t have any notice of when trains would be available so we went to the metro instead. Thankfully we could connect to the metro in that station and we wouldn’t have to waste a ticket. We took line 1 to line 12 and made it to our Solférino stop. It felt so good to be back! We finally got home after 9:30pm or so.

While waiting for the metro, I had turned to Adrienne and said “Who knew that these stinky metro stations would become so familiar to us?” It is a strange but comforting feeling when something so foreign becomes familiar.

We dropped off our bags and I set to making dinner. I quickly just heated up some of our frozen ratatouille and made some couscous. We devoured it like starving wolves.

I managed to talk to my parents on the phone. It was fun to give them an update after my trip.
Finally I showered and got to bed.

February 9th Saturday

Our plan was to try to get breakfast in the morning at one of the street cafés. We ended up waking up around 11:00 though. We got dressed and quickly went out to see if we could find breakfast still. First we had little pains au chocolat to hold us over until we found food. Our goal was to find churros. We stopped at one café that had tables on the street. It was so nice outside that we wanted to profit from the sun and warmth. We asked for churros but they didn’t have any. We ended up having chocolate con tostada. The hot chocolate was the thickest I’ve ever seen. We think they make it with yogurt. The toast was just a large piece of bread that had been fried in butter. We ate it with more butter and apricot jam.

After breakfast we started walking back toward the apartment but stopped in a clothing store. It was so nice to see such smaller prices than in Paris. We tried on a few things. I ended up purchasing a shirt and a jacket. The jacket is mint green with embroidery and beads on the sleeves and lapels. I also got a very nice shirt that is longer and has flowing sleeves. It’s the style that reminds me of a kimono. It’s black with white and brown flowers on it.

With our new purchases we made our way up the little hill to Karuna’s apartment. We took shifts in the bathroom to shower. We were eventually ready to go and made a quick lunch before heading out. We used a nice lettuce that we’d bought at the store to make a salad. Karuna cut up some chicken. I made some toast. She cut some beets and made them in a mixture of salt, cream, and vinegar. When it was put all together we had a light salad. It was very good.

While eating lunch, the TV was on and I got to see part of Family Guy and Futurama in Spanish. It made it extra funny of course. We finished lunch and made our way out to explore Madrid. We headed toward the botanical garden and on the way we saw tables full of books. I wanted to stop and buy something silly for Tom in Spanish. I passed up on the Cocinar para Embarazadas book for something equally silly but hopefully more entertaining.

We took the long walk around the gardens trying to find the entrance. When we finally found the entrance we discovered that there was an entry fee and it was an hour until they closed. We ended up deciding to go the next day and hit up some museums now. Karuna and Maria went to find Karuna a dress for the next weekend. She’s coming to Paris for a gala.

Adrienne and I stopped by some tourist carts to buy postcards. We also stopped in a store to look at what they had. I kind of wanted to buy a tiny bull for Tyler but wasn’t sure how to get it back with me. We ended up just continuing onward toward the Museo Reina Sofia. It was Saturday afternoon and the museums were free. We walked up and saw a huge line to get in. We were confused for a minute because it had big banners saying “Picasso.” We thought this might be the Picasso museum that Karuna was talking about. It looked like it would take forever. We walked around the back of the museum to try to find Museo Reina Sofia. We ended up finding another entrance. We grabbed some free tickets from the window and went in. Apparently the museum was having a temporary Picasso exhibit with items from the museum in Paris. How ironic. We passed through there and then decided to try to find the more permanent exhibits. We managed to do that and saw some interesting artwork in all different mediums. One thing that touched me was in video form. It was of a dozen or so women dressed in wedding dresses that walked into a busy square and sat down in a circle. They all had transparent gloves on their hands. They embroidered their life lines to symbolize the pain they had all experienced in their lives. Then they pulled off the gloves and cast them aside. It was very interesting.

We also found another temporary exhibit about flamenco dancers and the night. That area had paintings, sculptures, and even some dresses on display. We finished our trip off with a stop in the surrealist section where we watched a little of Un Chien Andalou. Then they chased us out because it was about 8:30pm and the museum was going to close soon. We needed to go anyway to meet up with Karuna at her apartment.

As we were walking there, though, she called us to say that she wasn’t near the apartment yet. Adrienne and I were extremely thirsty so we decided to find a café or bar to get some drinks in while we waited. We stopped into a bar. I realized that I’d been pampered by France’s no-smoking bars and the smoke here threw me off. I ordered us an orange juice and a coke. The total only came to around €4 and came with a bowl of potato chips. In Paris you can pay up to €5 just for a coke. I like how they come in bottles though. It’s cute.

We ended up drinking our beverages and ordering a second round as we watched a Spanish basketball game on the large television. Properly hydrated, we headed out of the bar to escape the smoke. We managed to find a tiny grocery store that was open. We bought some mini croissants with chocolate on them to replace the ones we’d eaten from Karuna’s roommates’ store. I also bought a Japanese snack called pocky. They’re like tiny breadsticks dipped in chocolate. Adrienne and I were hungry so we tried to lightly snack while still leaving room for the Spanish dinner that we’d be having.

We got the call from Karuna that she was back and we met up with her and Maria. We went to drop off our little groceries and then headed out to eat. Our receipt from the place says it is Cañas y Tapas Mediteraneo Iguanocuatro S.L. Maria likes this restaurant and showed it to us. The menu had a collection of many different dishes that you could just order for the table. They gave us a little chalkboard so that we could write the numbers of the dishes we wanted. I wanted paella so we ordered paella con mariscos (seafood). It had shrimp, mussels, squid and small clams mixed in the rice. We also got a dish that had over-easy eggs, green pepper, fries, and chorizo. Then another dish was called quesos ibericos. It was a collection of cheeses and meats like dried ham. There was also salmorejo. It is a soup served cold that’s made from tomatoes, bread, oil, garlic, and vinegar. It was garnished with chopped ham and hardboiled egg. We could either eat it with a spoon or with the bread on the table. The meal was quite delicious and we accompanied it with a bottle of rosé wine.

The entire meal including the wine came to €40. Adrienne and I treated Karuna and Maria to say thank you for letting us stay there. It was interesting trying to speak in Spanish to Maria. I found myself trying to imitate the Spanish accent instead of the Latin American accents I learned in. I realized also that I have forgotten a lot of it, but I’m amazed with how much I did remember. I think if I spent more time in Spain it would come back pretty fast.

We had started dinner at 10:30pm and then left the place at midnight. I kept looking at my watch in disbelief. It was an authentic Spanish dinner in more ways than one.

We walked back to the apartment and fell into bed around 1:40am.

February 8th Friday

My alarm was set for 4:00am. I ended up waking up in the night worrying about oversleeping. We got up at 4 and I took a very fast shower. I finished packing the essentials and ate some cereal for breakfast. I also made a peanut butter sandwich for later since it would be a long day.

The airport we were flying out of is in Beauvais. We had to get to a bus stop and take a bus to the airport. We had called for a taxi with TaxiBleu the night before. We went down and he was waiting for us. He drove us to the bus stop. It ended up being really expensive! I guess he had been waiting for a while downstairs. We thought they’d call when they got to our place. Our trip ended up being €20. Yeah, ridiculous.

We made it to the bus stop and bought round trip tickets. The bus tickets turned out to be about €26. We put our luggage in the luggage compartment and climbed on up. We were lucky enough to find two seats together. We were exhausted and I was hoping on catching some sleep on the bus ride. Then the girl in front of me leaned her seat back. I was completely squished. I had heard her talking to her friend and thought “Stupid American girl.” I’ve been in France too long. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to sleep much.

The bus ride is over an hour long. It was still very dark. On the way we passed 2 Carrefours. They’re kind of like the Wal-Marts of France. I’ve been trying to find one. We also passed not one, but two Buffalo Grills. I was really surprised. I didn’t know those would exist here.

We made it to the airport where we ended up having to check in at the counter because they don’t let non EU citizens check in online. We also had to pay the check in fee.

We had made it to the airport with plenty of time. We even stopped in the little airport café to get Adrienne some breakfast. I also ended up ordering hot chocolate and a croissant. I was a French snob again and turned my nose up at the croissant.

We ended up waiting quite a while. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 8:20am. It wasn’t until that time that we started boarding. Ryanair has open seating so we just went on and picked whatever seat we found. Unless they’re on exit rows, all of them are a tight fit. Blast these long legs of mine!

I snoozed for a little but was unable to get much real sleep on the plane. I was glad when we finally landed at 10:30am. We were now in Madrid, Spain! We excitedly but exhaustedly made our way through the airport (without hitting any kind of passport control) toward the metro. I got to break out my rusty Spanish and ask a lady where we needed to go. I received an answer that made me blink and nod. I went in the direction she pointed and found the signs.

We took the metro line 8, to line 10, and finally line 1. We got to our metro stop thanks to Karuna’s directions. We emerged from the metro and I was able to use Spanish once again in asking where the street Reina Cristina was. We got our direction and started walking slowly toward Karuna’s apartment. We were an hour earlier than the time she said she’d meet us at her place.

Then, as I was taking a picture of the city, we saw Karuna coming down the street! She had overslept and was now on her way to class to give a presentation. We had the option of taking her keys to go back to the apartment or following her to class. We chose the latter. We went back into the metro station which connected with the train station. Karuna is in the same program in the Spain site and the university, Universidad Carlos III, is a little outside of the city. We got onto a train and took it for about 15 minutes. We also had to walk quite a bit to the actual classroom. Finally we arrived at 12:15. Thankfully, they were standing around talking. Some people were leaving because class was scheduled to end and they needed to go. Others were staying to hear more presentations. I was glad we came because we got to see the other people in our program. They are Adrianne, Patrick, and Rachel.

We watched a student presentation about federalism in Spanish. I was glad that I was able to understand everything. Karuna’s presentation was put off until the next week. After the class we went and sat in the cafeteria. I bought a ham and cheese sandwich and water. I encountered my first weird vocabulary word. I’d learned “jugo” for juice. In Spain it’s “zumo.” Also, on the train I’d seen signs saying that “pisos” were for sale. I was wondering why they’d be advertising floors on apartment buildings before realizing that’s the word for apartment (not apartamento).

The water and sandwich felt really good. Unfortunately I also had some severe stomach pain which was a continuance of what I had in France. I was getting random stomach cramps. It didn’t help that I was running on three hours of sleep.

We walked and “trained” back to Karuna’s apartment. We were able to drop off our things there and meet her roommate. The roommate is named Maria and she doesn’t speak much English. This means I get to practice more Spanish but there’s a need for translation between Adrienne and Maria.

After meeting Maria it was definitely quiet time. Karuna pulled an extra mattress into her room. She let Adrienne and me nap for a few hours. At 6:00pm or so, I woke up feeling like a human being again.

We went to a couple of markets to get groceries for dinner. We bought chicken, eggs, and asparagus among other things. I also bought a toothbrush since I’d forgotten mine in Paris and some Spanish chocolate con leche. We made our way back and started making dinner.

Karuna put some asparagus in a pot to boil while she prepared some chicken. We’d had an egg broken in transit (since I’d checked it at the store and they were fine) so we used it in dinner. She beat the egg and used it to batter the chicken. We had chicken and asparagus accompanied by orange juice and followed by chocolate and chai.

Since we still had yet to see much of Madrid on our first day in, we went for a night walk. It was neat to see all the main streets at night. There were lots of fountains lit up. If one is in a safe place, I recommend always touring a city at night. They look so different from the daytime and it’s good to see the contrast. We made a big loop and came back. We also saw lots of statues either attached to buildings or standing free. I like the fact that random buildings have a giant angel on top of them. That’s something that I think is lacking in the US. Let’s see some more naked women on buildings in an artistic way.

We got back to the apartment. I was worried that I wouldn’t be tired at bedtime from my nap. I was quite wrong. We went to bed around 1:00am.

February 7th Thursday

I slept in until 11:00am and it felt marvelous. I showered and ate chocolate cereal while checking my email online.

I went to the post office to pick up an envelope for my roommate and to mail 3 postcards. I mailed one to my parents and the others were from Adrienne to her family. I like the post office near our place. It’s small, not very crowded, and the people are friendly. I ended up buying 5 postcards with envelopes that are already stamped for international mailing.

I walked to BNP Paribas (our bank) because I had received a notice that our cards were ready. It turned out that they were not ready and that they, in fact, needed our landlord to fill out the bank’s form. At least I tried getting them to take the letter.

I left the bank feeling dejected and ended up seeking solace in the crêpe stand across the street from the bank. I was very hungry and it was time for lunch so I ordered a crêpe with ham in it. It was hot and delicious. Right next to the stand there was a band playing and trying to sell CDs. I bounced to the music as I walked home eating my treat. On the way home I got a severe stomach pain that made me stop and wait for it to die down before I started walking again. It was painful but over pretty quickly.

I got home and cleaned the apartment from top to bottom. Our party was supposed to start at 7:00pm. We were having a Chinese New Year party. It is the year of the Rat. Adrienne and I are both rates. I thought this was a good thing until Adrienne’s friend set us straight. She said “Well we’re safe every year but our own.” Apparently one superstition is that you can have really bad accidents in your year. Hopefully all the rats will make it through unharmed.

Adrienne and I made some samples of the food that we bought for the party. We had egg rolls and vegetable dumplings complete with dipping sauce. They were actually really good. I also made a very bad batch of rice. I didn’t put in enough water so the rice was slightly crunchy.

I excitedly opened a bottle of the rice wine expecting it to be like sake. Then when I poured it into a cup, I got an unpleasant surprise. The liquid was brown instead of clear. I adventurously tasted it before making a face. It did not taste good at all. I looked up rice wine on Wikipedia and discovered that in Northern China they make rice wine with rice and wheat. So even if it wasn’t tasty, it was at least authentic. I was really disappointed that it didn’t taste like sake.

I suddenly felt rather sick. I knew it wasn’t the wine. It had been creeping up on me a little before. I felt achy all over as if I had the flu but I had no other symptoms. I lied down on my bed knowing that people would be here for a party and hoping I would feel better. Lying down did help. I was able to be up and ready by the time people arrived.

Eventually people showed up to our party closer to 8:30 and 9. We had TAM people and a few Euromasters. We were joined by Leonel, Heidi, Amanda, Matteo, and Amanda’s friend Chris. Alberto was on his way here but couldn’t find the place. As they came in I prepared egg rolls for everyone. Luckily, people brought good wine with them so there was something reasonable to serve the guests. I was able to convince people to try the rice wine. They all shared my opinion of it. We also had various candies from the Asian market in different packages. After a while we cut into the soy cake to see what mysteries it held. It had a white powder outside and a yellow powdery/creamy inside. The first bite didn’t taste like anything. It took a few bites to realize that it had a subtle flavor that turned out to be very pleasant. I enjoyed it.

I thought it was a fun party and I hope our guests did as well. We took a fun picture together. The idea was to pretend like you were taking a school picture, but everyone just turned out looking really hot. Eventually people trickled out the door and back home on the last metro trains. We were free a bit after midnight. We managed to completely clean up the dishes and the kitchen, get packed for our morning flight, and get into bed at 1:00am. Tomorrow, Spain!