March 10, 2010

The family came home yesterday. Mr. Julienne came in to put their new wine in the cellar and he was just being cute and bubbly and seemed genuinely happy to see courtney and me. I saw a band-aid on his finger and commented that he had a wound and he was all "oh non, non. une petite booboo" and it was just so funny. I really like him. He's pretty silly.

Church was ok, today. i was really tired and i have no idea why because i didn't stay up that late. after church i was talking to Todd, another american named Carter and my sunday school teacher. it turns out they all needed hair cuts but they hate getting cuts here because they don't know how to ask for them they asked if any of us cut hair and i told them that i've cut guys hair before but with scissors. they decided that we were going to have a hair-cutting party and they would pay me with food. sounds game to me! i hope i don't mess up... haha. it'll be fun. i'm looking forward to it.

Last night, it was totally scared because i was up after everyone else had gone to bed. when i went to the bathroom i turned on the living room light so i could find my way to courtney's room ok and while i was on the pot (heh) i heard someone moving around in there so i kind of figured i woke someone up or something. i felt weird so i didn't come out for a couple min. when i did, there was a really cold breeze like a window was open, then i heard a door slam shut. I looked up at the little door to outside by the stairs and a figure ran past it. i was kind of freaked out and went to wash my hands in the bathroom in courtney's room. i stayed in there for a bit too. when i sneaked into my room i felt like everything was ok, but then i heard more shuffling around in the basement. it was prob just one of the family members, like Tristan sneaking out or something. it was just freaky. I'm glad everything is safe.

After church today, Ariel, Sheina and i went first to Sheina's house to get her computer, than to mine so we could all do homework together. it was really fun to just hang out with some girls while doing homework and goofing off. It's a bit of college life i feel like i'm missing out on right now. It was nice to just hang out and not worry about doing the walks or food or anything like that. we were also able to talk about boy deprivation, bodily functions, etc. it was nice to just laugh and talk about totally dumb things. good times.

we needed to grab sheina's computer because Ariel and i needed power point and Ariel's roommate and mine were being major brats about letting us borrow theirs. Ariel especially needed to borrow someone's and kept talking about it. at first sheina wouldn't be able to let her borrow hers because she was going for a walk, and i was just really annoyed that Courtney wouldn't offer to let ariel use hers. it was just stupid. Sheina ended up not doing the walk so Ariel was able to use hers at my place. Sheina lives in Vesinet, which is a town just past Croissy. it's super cute and really spread out. i was trying to not be jealous of her town. the house i live in is still the best, though.

Dinner with the family was ok. i walked in a bit late because i had walked ariel to the RER station. it was a little awkward and i didn't really understand anything they were saying tonight. they didn't even really talk to me either. the food was ok, though. we had pizza which i had been craving for forever. the dad made sure to set a piece aside so i could have seconds. they know me too well. i ate really fast, too, cause i always feel like they are waiting for me and it's awkward. Nothing too fun to report there. I guess i found it interesting that Lorene was drinking wine at dinner.

Now it's wednesday. Let's see... what happened on Monday... I just went to class, and the big project i had to present on was put off a week. it just kind of stunk because i was busy doing that instead of working as hard as i should on my French homework. After class, i was going to do my homework until FHE but a whole group of us minus a few of my least favorite people stuck around at the institute and spoke about death and what we want done to our bodies after we die. Bart got really into it. He came up with some good ideas. One of his best has to be putting your ashes in concrete to make a statue of yourself with. No one understood why i wanted to be put in a wooden coffin. I guess they just don't understand why i care about the circle of life type of thing but i want to be part of the earth when i die, not all creepy and mumified in a steal casket. It was really amusing, though, and I like that Bart has his morbid side. I'm not the only one.

FHE with the family was ok. i pretty much just dinked around on my computer with ariel and we ate chocolate tarts together, it was really nice and relaxing. even though i felt like i had so much to do, i really wanted to socialize, so Ariel and i headed out to the young single adults FHE. When we first got t here, it was a little awkward cause both of us felt a little awkward about using our french. The lesson was given by Miro on "la foi." I had no idea what la foi was so i was really confused for a bit, but when i got the whole seed and tree thing i got it. It was really interesting hearing the faith is like a little seed stuff from a convert. I suppose i never thought of it from a convert's view point. i'm sure it's scary for them to make the decision to be baptized when they don't know everything, but just hearing that you don't need to know everything has got to be pretty important for them. Ariel said that she didn't understand any of it but still felt the spirit. It was just really different than FHE with the BYU kids because these kids were all really into the lesson.

Rewind a tad... before FHE happened with the single adults, Ed, the guy who's house this is all at, was stuck in traffic, so we were all hanging out in his hall waiting for him. I was talking to one kid who's swiss. I told him that i've been to bern and that i have family there. he asked why they were there and was surprised to find out they were swiss. He asked why my family left and when i told him my ancestor didn't get the house, he immigrated to the states. he seemed really perplexed.

After the lesson, i spoke with Todd and Miro. both boys are really easy to talk to and Ariel and i like them better than any of the other guys in our BYU group. I also spoke to one French guy who asked me what i was planning on doing after school and he was really perplexed when i told him that i had no idea. i guess things are a little different in France on that regard. Miro went to spain for this birthday and was telling us how he was having family drama and it all sounded so familiar. family drama is the same around the world. At one point i looked over at him and who he was talking to and he was dancing sexy and lifting up his shirt, than he basically gave a lap dance on the couch. i did my best to act shocked but he said he was telling a story about someone else. it was pretty funny. Landon, my sunday school teacher, found me to remind me that i'm cutting his hair. I like talking to todd cause ariel and i are pretty honest about how we feel about the other kids in our group. he's fairly amused by it.

After FHE, Ariel and i decided that we are horribly boy deprived here. my boy standers have gone down a lot too, being that there are no good looking guys here. anyone remotely not ugly i'll drool after. haha. Ariel has also decided that she wants to NCMO a lot because she's just betting more and more guy crazy the more we are deprived. It'll be even worse for her because she's going on an all girls art history tour during spring term, so when she gets back to provo, she'll prob go nuts. what a fox. We talked in sighn language across the metro station. maybe i should do sign language, i'm remembering all of that pretty well.

here's a random story. One time i got off the RER at croissy. I was just walking home when i realized that NOTHING looked familiar. i knew i got off the right train station and i knew i was going home the right way but it was just really eery (i cannot figure out how to spell that so... sorry) to me that everything looked different. I really felt like i was in a dream state or in an alternate reality. it was very creepy.

I also had to buy mascara the other day cause i was running out. here, mascara costs 15 euros!!!!!!!!!!!!! 15!!!!!!!! what the heck??? i swear. If i had normal eyelashes i wouldn't even bother. Shaina (i just figured out that i had been spelling that wrong) told me that she's scared of Tilda Swinton (the witch from The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe) because she doesn't have eyelashes... aka they are blond. I guess it's ok that i bought mascara, then. I don't want to scare off shaina with my eyelashesness.

We had our french test after class and it wasn't so bad. i just suck at vocabulary which is stupid cause that's supposed to be the easiest part. i guess i'm just not good at memorization. i was also able to make up the listening comp test after that and chilled with garret and ariel for a bit.

Before the test, i had a little meeting with Ricks about my french 362 project ideas. I am either thinking something to do wtih Dali or with sexism in Paris. he gave me some good ideas for both. he said i could either do Dali and his views of women (which if you think about his relationship with his wife, gala, his views have got to be interesting) or i could go to the local modern art museum where they have featured women artists and he told me about gorilla girls who are i guess local feminists. any ideas?

I just went home after that and napped until dinner as usual. dinner was fine. the mom was nice and chill yesterday and it was just really relaxed. I made sure not to stuff myself cause i'm starting to notice a little weight gain. besides, we had to save some dinner for Lorene. we just had some really Delicious smelling veggies but they taste bland. they smell like spicey pizza. after we had a ciche. idk, it was just chill and nice. the dad is just so cute.

hmmm... today i just went to french class and then i hung out in the louvre trying to work on my painting presentation. Mine is the "apotheosis of Homer" by Ingres. i have to talk about the composition, colors, lighting, history, symbols, etc. hopefully i do ok. It got put off till next week, though, just like my religion project. wish me luck.

before class started, we all got there really early cause french 362 was canceled. we were just hanging out in one of the main galleries. i layed across shaina and ariel and they played with my hair. we found it funny that we were just dinking around in the Louvre. a lot of people walked past us and looked at us funny which was amusing. We then started to imitate paintings in the louvre which was really fun. ariel says that all masters start by copying other masters so we're just learning how to make great art with our bodies. one curator was laughing when ariel was making a beard out of her hair. i was afraid she was going to come tell us to stop being so roudy but i think she was actually pretty amused. I really like Shaina and Ariel because i feel pretty safe talking to them about just about anything. Ariel is so blunt to, which i love. she's so honest. we all make fun of everyone else, too. Ariel and i got really lost before getting to the main gallery. the louvre is so huge! you'd think we'd know our way around by now.

Ariel and i always get ignored.

Oh, kirsten wanted me to mention Franglish. Basically i have issues speaking english too for some reason now. sometimes i frenchify words. mostly i'll spell something french at times. I've also seemed to forget how to conjugate in english. it's interesting.

Yesterday at the RER a french women asked me if the next train was going to croissy. i was able to tell her in french that when the light next to croissy is lit up, then the train will be going there. i'm pretty pleased with myself for helping someone out in french.

It was the missionary zone conference today. I didn't really get to see a ton of missionaries, but i saw elder maxwell again. He was in paris earlier this semester and was companions with the engaged missionary i mentioned. Maxwell is actually the grandson of the big maxwell, so that's neat. i miss seeing elder maxwell around, though. he got transfered to northern france somewhere. he said that he's thinking about going to BYU after the mission so i told him that i would hopefully see him there. I may also see him at the next zone conference I guess he's been out for 16 months so the end isn't so far away for him. he's a pretty cute and nice kid.

wow, i think that's it for the random stories this go around.

Well tomorrow i have an early start. We're going to Normandy. we'll go to the beaches and Mt St Michelle and to see THE tapestry. i can't wait to tell you all about it. we should get back friday night. and saturday, Ariel and i (and maybe some of the others... hopefully not a ton) are going with todd to the catacombs. it should be fun! :)