Last civilization class. Man this sucks, or as Martel would
say, "it sooks." Damnit why are all of my favorite classes finishing
before my un-fun classes? Karma, you really don't like me sometimes. And here I
thought that we were finally becoming friends. Although I'm sad, no crap, that
civilization is now done it's not that depressing. Why? It turns out that I
will have to take it along with language again second semester. No I didn't
fail the classes, rather they are the only French as a foreign language courses
offered by the university and I am supposed to take such courses each semester
while I'm here. What this means is that I will have an easy ride in
civilization and bitch of time in language. Again, you ask why audience? Well
civilization is taught by Martel and language by Ardouin. Sigh, another
semester with Ardouin, something I wasn't planning at all. I guess that worse
things have happened in life, again no crap. It was a very mellow Monday
otherwise, nothing out of the ordinary. Then again, what is with me and the
word "again" in this post, I'm not craving excitement. That usually
bites me, and it's always hard. Adieu audience!
December 9th
Today's blog will consist of eight sentences that will begin
after the magic words "clam chowder" are shouted by someone. Why?
Cause my fingers are dead from writing/formatting/uploading crap tons of blog
posts! Tis all.
Nowells shouted, "Clam chowder!" before performing
40 oz to Freedom (This didn't actually happen).
I need new headphones for the plane ride home. Guess I'll buy
some now, no time like the present? Hmmm where are the headphones...oh that
looks about right. Let's go white this time, don't want to mix up the old with
the new. DVDs, second floor I suppose...and bingo! PAL version, meh Rikki reads
them fine. Horrible Bosses, seeing as I saw this film five times in the theater
when it came out I assume that it is one of my favorites. I'll take it.
December 8th
Today was the day of the Paris Christmas Markets! I'll say
this now, it was freakin' awesome!!!! Exclamation points to the max!!!!!!!!!!!
Kate, Paula, and I grabbed the 9:11 am train, met our friend Jonathan at St.
Lazare, and headed off to the La Défense Christmas market. I like that part of
Paris, a lot actually. I could live there because it resembles a city. There
are skyscrapers made of glass and steel. Not as beautiful as the Chicago
skyline, obviously, but it was a refreshing view. The Christmas market also reminded
me of Chicago because it looked like German fest. The only thing missing was a
Vienna Beef hotdog stand. Sigh, home I will see you soon enough. Right now,
it's shopping in Paris!!! The markets did not seem to end. They had such a
variety of merchandise there literally everything from candles and ornaments to
fast paced pitches for cooking utensils.
I nabbed some gifts for friends and family, but wasn't able to satisfy my
quota. Luckily, I am again saying something in advance, our train tickets were
not marked by the conductors. This allows us to use them again. We are going to
use them again this upcoming Saturday to visit more markets. Today we only, and
I say only loosely, explored two markets. They were just absolutely massive.
The only flaw to the day was the fact that no one knows how to walk in a crowd.
People, on crowded sidewalks it is necessary to form rivers; a stream
East/North and a stream West/South. That ensures that traffic moves. Do not
scuffle about at random paces. It makes Mary frustrated. That is always bad.
Besides the ignorant crowds of people who clearly are not from cities screwing
up the sidewalk paces, the day went smoothly. There was a wonderful highlight
as well. Paula and I rode a huge Ferris wheel at the end of Champs-Elysée together.
Paula had never been on a Ferris wheel before, what a first time. We were able
to see so much of Paris during a sunset no less. It was breathtaking, literally
breathtaking. I am just, I'm not sure, blissful? Yeah, blissful that we were
able to do that together. Paris you aren't Chicago, but you're definitely a
beautiful city.
P.S. All caught up on blogs suckers!!! Love, MareBear
December 7th
Today was my last day of Arthurian Literature. It made my so
very sad. Unfortunately we had a pop-quiz, super, but apparently it was hard
for the French students. Pretty sure that my professor will take it easy on me.
I did try though, without a dictionary too. After the quiz was a lecture, then
a speech, then a lecture. I understood the lectures close to perfectly. Not
bad. The speech not as much, I followed bits but the students need to work on
the monotone. In English I have trouble following robotic class speeches, they
are just too dull. Still I felt a ping of sadness when my teacher wished us all
a good winter break and luck on our final exams. She also spoke with me and
asked how long I was staying in France. I told her probably July. She said that
it was fantastic that I was staying and that she hopes I enjoy Le Havre. GAH!
Now I'm sad. I really liked that class, it sucks that it's now over. Oh well,
all good things must come to an end. That was the bittersweet part of my day.
The following event was tragic. I cannot believe what I did, how stupid I was.
Here I thought that everything would be fine, what could wrong? Well this must
be karma or something biting me in the ass coupled with pure stupidity. My Blackhawks,
I am so sorry. I gravel at your skates and kiss your blades in forgiveness.
Believe me I didn't mean to dye my Blackhawks blanket pink! I thought that my
red sheets would be fine with my red blanket, but I forgot one thing. Cheap
sheets bleed color regardless of temperature. I am so so so SO very sorry. I
still love my blanket, although it is now a light shade of pink. At least it
wasn't my Toews jersey. Still, of all the colors, pink. Surely this is punishment
enough for whatever bad deed that I committed. All I can do is look on the
brightside. Crap, there really isn't one.
December 6th
Remember all those annoying doctor appointments I had
earlier in the semester? Do you also remember how when I tried to finish the
whole French insurance process they didn't have my medical certificate? Well I
am happy to say audience that it is all over. That's right, it's over. I found
a note on the schedule bulletin board reminding me to visit the student center
at 9:00 am on December 6th, second floor (third floor in the States) of course.
I was there, on the dot, and no one else was. Turns out that on the dot is
early in France, I should've remembered that, so I was the first one in line.
Sweet. The woman asked me to sit down and I did. Wow, how unexpected. I was
nervous, afraid even, that my medical certificate was still somehow missing. Or
that something else had possibly gone wrong. I had with me my medical folder
that held all the results of my various exams. It was my proof that I had indeed
gone to every appointment and was a healthy candidate for insurance. After ages
of waiting, the woman had forgotten some supplies downstairs or something, she
finally began the process. My file had my medical certificate. I had my
passport and a photo. She had a sticker and stamp for my visa. I was done. This
is a Rocky moment of life. Sweet victory, it's finally over. Score for Mary!!!
December 5th
I love hilarious moments. Today's hilarious moment was when
Paula imitated Kirby during Medieval History TD. Some background information as
to why this happened. It is becoming cold in Le Havre, such is the season of
Winter. My black pea coat provides the right amount of insulation from the
ocean winds that whip across the docks and the harbor. I'd say it is an
appropriate coat; it keeps me warm and is fashionable. Paula doesn't have a
particularly fashionable winter coat. It works, it keeps her toasty, but is
obnoxious. Her coat is a fluffy marshmallow hot pink zip-up. I absolutely love
it. She refers to it as her "Kirby coat". Now, who is Kirby? How can
you not know audience? He is the most adorable pink puff ball of a video game
character. Q-Bert isn't even as cute as Kirby. Kirby goes around Dreamland
saving the day from various villains by absorbing enemies and copying their
powers. For example if he swallows a Fire-Spit Kirby can breathe fire. He is
completely rad. Well, during Medieval History I drew a small image of Kirby in
my notebook during a student speech. It wasn't a bad drawing either. I tapped
it and whisper to Paula, "Hey babe it's you." She smiled and then sucked
in a bunch of air. A loud whistling noise occurred. I lost it, just lost it at
my desk. Everyone looked at Paula and me, probably as though we were crazy, but
I didn't care. I just had to let the laugh out. It was just hilarious. She tried
to imitate the sound Kirby makes when he sucks up his enemies. It was possibly
one of the happiest moments of France. Paula makes an adorable Kirby which
makes Medieval History that much better.
December 4th
Ever have one of those days where the world just doesn't
like you? I think this is my fourteenth one in 2012. Crap. Well what went wrong
you ask audience? A whole lot. This morning was another in-class essay, however
it was an in-class essay that I had forgotten about. Oops. I had a feeling that
I would need my dictionaries so I brought them to class, just in case, and they
save my ass. I had to write in French a rhetorical analysis between two
different excerpt of text. Crap, crap, crap! I am pretty sure I didn't do that
well. I tried, I did that. I tried my best to write and convey the similarities
and differences between the styles of writing, character behaviors, and purposes
of the authors between Pride and Prejudice and Letters Written from Lausanne.
My teacher did provide the original text for Pride and Prejudice, aka English,
but Letters Written from Lausanne was 100% French. Again, I tried. And to be
fair I am a foreign student whose biggest barrier is language. The ideas are
there, the words just aren't quite present. In English, I would've be a-ok,
seriously I'm decent at rhetoric and symbolism crap. I just don't care about
them is all. The second wave of the world dumping crap into my lap was the
language quiz. If you recall audience I was not going to see the kids today
because I had a quiz at the same time. I think I lost all of my French when I
walked into that room. Nervousness is unfortunately something that bites me
quite often. I studied a decent amount too, I just wasn't prepared for two
things; passé simple and song lyrics. The passé simple is a French tense that I
haven't studied extensively. Why? Well I have no purpose for it unless I want
to write novels in French. Literally, that's the only time they use it,
according to all my French professors. So when I had to conjugate it for an excerpt
from Les Misérables, well it wasn't the prettiest. The other part, the song
lyrics. What kind of jackass of a professor puts song lyrics on a quiz and
expects his students to be able to fill in the blank areas? M. Ardouin. Dude,
you're an idiot. How is knowing the lyrics to a song which we've heard twice
testing our level of French understanding? Here's the answer, it isn't.
Ardouin, we have a French civilization class taught by M. Martel, who is
totally awesome. We don't need you to try, and fail, at culturing us in French
during a language course. Your job is to teach grammar, try to stick with it.
So yeah, that was my tumbling day of French exams. I am going home for some
carrots and applesauce. Possibly some South Park as well.
December 3rd
My film presentation went alright. I believe that M. Martel
enjoyed it, I was nervous as all hell, but it went smoothly enough. I spoke
about the differences that I had found between French and American cinema. I
focused on three genres, comedy, action, and drama, and discussed differences between
two films in each category. However, I started the speech with a brief history
of film. I really made it brief. It covered no genres, no Oscars, no Hitchcock,
just major events that changed film. Film was born in France so I began with
France. It then was rapidly adapted and changed in the States. I then switched
to the Stars and Stripes. I actually showed the very first film made by the
Lumière Brothers, the one when the train arrives at the station. It isn't much,
but it's cute to show. After my history lesson I compared the various films.
These were the pairings, as follows from drama to action to comedy; The
Graduate and Paris Je T'aime, The Transporter and Batman the Dark Knight, Brice
de Nice and Anchorman. I concluded that French films tended to lean towards
artistic and moral beliefs, meaning characters have a change of heart and it
ends in a better situation or at least a solved situation. American films do
whatever the hell they want and have so much variety it is almost incomprehensible.
My final slide said that regardless of what I found, if you really want to know
just watch some films. Everyone clapped and I ran back to my desk. All is well that
ends well with power points.
December 2nd
I bought the tickets! Yes I have the means to return home
again. Again, sweet victory. Nothing much happened today. I lounged about, did
some Reaver yoga, entertained with Youtube, and studied for my upcoming French
quiz. I did some laundry, which was necessary, while I watched Rio Grande for
the second time. I love classic western films, they just have this rustic charm
to them. My favorite is Son of Paleface. It is more of a comedy than a western,
but regardless it has cowboys, Indians, guns, and a damsel in distress.
Paleface just has song and dance as well as a moose spitting gold. Sweet film I
know. Speaking of films, tomorrow is finally my film presentation. I am nervous
but more so anxious to have it done and over with. It is just too much waiting!
I only have so much patience and with that presentation it has run dry. Oh well
I suppose, just need time to pass. Wish me luck audience!
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