Danny's life in France

as usual, a day during a vacation week, i didn't do hardly anything. i cleaned my room, borrowed matt's computer so i could watch some simpsons eposides, went to stevie's and justin's to make dinner and did laundry. now i'm going to go upstairs and pack with perhaps some simpsons afterwards. but more to come on sunday after i get back from LONDON!!

wow! i can't believe that it's been a couple of days since i last posted. so, to catch y'all up, sunday it rained buckets. still had sand from the sahara desert in it. a nasty rain. oh yeah, that's another thing. i don't think i mentioned this previously, but what looks like a muddy rain is actually sand that blew all the way thousands of miles up from the sahara and falls in our rain here. bizarre, huh? so stevie and i went to marion's place to work on our oral presentation for next tuesday. then yesterday, i went to marseille to look for books for our project. it's funny - i went to Joseph Gibert in both paris and in marseille (the biggest book store here in france and in the 2 biggest cities in france) and NOTHING! oh well. after getting back from marseille, i...went out with isabelle. we ended up going out to eat italian and talking about our trip to london. then today i got up, messed around all day by doing nothing (when i should have been reading books for our project). i went to the class in which i've got the oral presentation next week. what a bore!!!! i can't stand that class!!! oh well. after getting home, i called anne-caroline and talked to her for a bit. i then got a call from sylvie who wanted to know if i wanted to go out with her and some of her friends to a tea shop. so i went 'cause i hadn't seen her in a while and also because i haven't ever been to one. so we went. it was a lot of fun! you have to take your shoes off (as in oriental cultures) and then you sit on the ground with a table that's just knee-high. there are soooooooooo many choices of teas, too. but we all just hung out. it was me, sylvie, christoph, danny (no, not me) and chloe. and get this - we're all going to do one last weekend of ski in march. how cool is that?! i can't wait!! now that it's nearly closing time for the computer lab (2am), i'm going to go upstairs so i can get up early to get stuff done (reading, internet research, laundry, pack, last minute stuff, etc). nite!

i only slept 2 and a half hours last night. i woke up at 4am to go skiing with ranya and avery. it was sure hard getting up, but it was worth it. i slept pretty much the entire trip there. once we got there, we couldn't figure out why our skis wouldn't work. we weren't able to slide like you're supposed to do. the problem was that this was a wet snow and that if we stood in one place too long snow would accumulate on the bottom of our skis, thus not letting us slide. we did a couple of bunny hills and then ranya had had enough. avery and i took the 'big-boy' ski lifts all the way up to the top and did some blue hills (green, blue, red, black diamond for the experts). it was fun and i didn't fall as much as last time. however, the snow had a yellow tint to it. and the rain here in aix all day looks like it comes from clouds of mud. but guess what it is - it's sand coming all the way from the sahara desert in africa!!! isn't that wierd?! but i had fun today, nonetheless. justin let me borrow his ski attire again today. and i had good gloves and a ski mask, too!! so snow and wind didn't bother my eyes. on the bus ride home, they showed this retarded movie that nobody watched because we all wanted to sleep. well, most of us. there was a couple that sat a couple of rows up from us that were basically doing everything but. it was disgusting. granted, i know the french are very open, but i mean, seriously. have some descency, some tact. gross. now that i'm back in aix, i showered and am getting ready to go to bed. boy will i sure sleep well tonight!

a read today that a woman in england is in trouble (again) for registering her cows to vote. what is wrong with the world today?? anyway, guess what i did today. i'll give you a hint. it starts with a "N" and ends with a "G". if you guessed 'nothing,' you guessed right. i slept until noon (after going to erin's party last night because joe is here visitng from besancon), got up, showered, ate, napped, got up again, came to the computer lab to do research for our trip to monterey, ca (me and roman), went to the grocery store to get stuff for tomorrow (we're going skiing in the alps yet again), went to get justin's ski attire, ate with jena's parents who are visiting her here in france, came back, cleaned my room and am getting ready to go upstairs to go to bed. our bus leaves at 5:30am!! what am i going to do? but...i'll be back with more information tomorrow as to how the ski trip went. but during my nap today, i dreamed that i decided to go home this weekend...ON EASYJET! i was like, hey, at $20 one way and 2 hours on a plane, why not? and when i got home, i had to mow the lawn, mowing over dead ducks!! i mean, wtf is wrong with me? first of all, easyjet doesn't go to the united states. second of all, even if they did, it sure as hell isn't a 2 hour trip, and thirdly, dead ducks?! i mean, common. anyway. now that the wind is officially howling outside, i'm going to bed. more to come later.

*MORE NEWS OF THE SICK AND TWISTED* so according to cnn.com, a french guy died after swallowing nearly $630 worth of coins! 12 pounds worth! what is wrong with this country? i can't wait to come home. anyway, in other news, this week really hasn't brought anything interesting. monday, i came back from paris and went to the last written expression class for 2 weeks. and tuesday was again my big day of classes. 10-7:30. yesterday i had only one class and i can't remember what i did after that. today i got up and went to my classes. it drives me nuts here in france - students talk in class and the profs don't care. so it's up to the students (usually the americans) to tell them to shut up. in the US, we don't do that. here in france, it's considered rude, but they do it anyway. so leave it up to the americans to tell them to shut up or get out because we're trying to listen and understand what the prof's saying. i've had to get nasty with people on many occasion. after my african fem. lit. class, i went to get some stuff tonight because erin's having another dinner party. she's got a friend of hers in and is inviting all of us over to eat and drink wine. so, i'll be leaving to go to her place her in a bit. tomorrow - who knows what i'll do. i'm going to sleep in, that's for sure!!

so my day on saturday started by me arriving at the marseille airport in the midst of a heavy fog. upon entering the terminal, i saw that all of the flights that weren't cancelled were taking off with at least an hour delay. in any case, i finally made it up to paris and anne-caroline came to get me. we went back to her place to chill for a bit. then i got my stuff and we took the RER (suburban train) into the city. once i got to my hotel, ac told me that it was in a bad part of town. and indeed it was! but things worked out for the best. the hotel didn't have record of my reservation. so the person at the desk tried to get me a room somewhere else in the area but no luck. i told her (i mean, i lied) saying that i didn't know anything about paris and that all of my friends lived in the south of paris (when i booked a hotel in the north). i asked if i could be moved down there since she was looking for a room for me. well, she found me a room just a few streets over from where i was...but in a nice neighborhood! so i checked in there and went to my room to find out that the tv didn't work. oh well. the guy at the desk said that they'd change rooms the next day since i took their last room. ac and i then went out to go get some books for some of my classes (since the bookstores down here aren't worth two cents). after that, we went to grab a drink and then split up to go off and see other friends of ours. i went to have dinner with a friend that i worked with this summer at lac du bois, katia. she was at one of her friends' host parents' apt, who was gone skiing for the week. man o man o man o man! what an apt this was!!! these people have to have some money. after that, i went back to my hotel and read a bit before going to bed. the next day i changed rooms and then set out for neuilly, the richest part of paris. it is really pretty!! one of my goals in life is to live there. and then, i went walking around georges v, where all of the nice stores and hotels are. hotel georges v (where the movie french kiss was filmed), heremes, louis vuitton (??), etc. wow!! the prices!!!! insane!!!! i then went wandering around to find something to eat and i found myself right near notre dame in the midst of all of the greek sandwich places. but i couldn't bring myself to eat there because it wasn't good old snacksomos that we've got here in aix! after that, i went back to the hotel to watch some tv and read a bit. i ended up watching this movie, which translated from french into english is 'the negociator.' it was really good. then i decided to go to bed after talking to my dad and grandma on the phone. however, there was a loud water pipe noise coming from the bathroom. i didn't sleep a wink last night (even with my head buried under pillows and stuff). so at 5am i decided to get up, shower and get to the airport early to get on standby for an earlier flight so i could sleep in my own bed before going to my 5:30pm class. so i checked out and was going to see about getting a refund for last night. well, the guy there said it was only his 3rd night and he couldn't do anything. the woman who i needed to talk to (and who was his replacement so he could go home and sleep) was late. i sat around and waited for her to tell me that i had to go through hotels.com. so i'm going to see if i can get a free stay out of hotels.com for all of the trouble i had this weekend in the hotel dept. after getting to the airport, all i saw on the departure screens was "ANNULE" (cancelled). there are nothing but air strikes this week. ( http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/02/16/france.strike.reut/index.html ) so i was at the airport at 8:30 and saw that there was a flight leaving for marseille at 9:30 that wasn't cancelled. well, there was a long list of passengers on standby. i couldn't do it. my original flight was at 12:30. so i sat there watching all of the news media running around interviewing people about their cancelled flights and such. i ran away from them as much as i could but it seemed that every time i turned around, there was a blasted news camera pointed right at me. after finally checking in and getting on the plane, we were in the air. an hour later when we started our descent into marseille, we were still at 27,000 feet when i felt the plane go into almost a 45-degree nose dive!!! i heard the woman behind me talking to her little kids going 'weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' and i was the only schmuck on the plane who put his hands on the seatback in front of him thinking the plane was going down. i seriously thought it was!!!!! i know you all back home are laughing but i almost had to go to the restroom and clear my pants after that little ordeal. i was scared shitless!! anyway, upon arriving back in marseille, the shuttle driver (airport-aix) gave me nothing but hassles about my pre-reserved ticket (that i got on the internet). he said that you can't reserve them on the internet and i told him bullshit. it was perfectly legit but he made me pay. so i'm going to go to the train station tomorrow or sometime (i bought them on the train station's website) and get shitty with someone because i've got a couple of round trips on this shuttle already planned in the future. after getting back to aix, i took a small nap, went off to the useless written expression class and then went to see isabelle. i just stopped by to say hi but she invited me out for a drink. so for 4 hours we just sat and talked. now that i'm home I AM GOING TO BED!! nite!!

nothing new and exciting today. just got up, went to get tickets for the shuttle that i'm going to take to the airport in the morning, went grocery shopping and...had a meeting with stevie and marion for our oral presentation that we've got to give the beginning of march. i have a ton of reading to do already. and unlike last semester, i'm not going to let it pile up. i'm going to stay on top of it. (well, i hope). so, i think i'm going to go upstairs and go to bed. i have to be out of bed at 9am tomorrow. grrrrr... but hey, i'm going to paris!

*NEWS OF THE SICK AND TWISTED* what is it with france and news of the sick and twisted? for example, 2 days in a row cnn.com has had an article on crazy stories coming from none other but france. for example, prison guards make a female inmate give birth chained to the hospital bed/table. and (this is even more disturbing) a woman married her boyfriend...WHO'S BEEN DEAD FOR 2 YEARS!!! i mean, what is it with this country?! but i guess the US has some sick and twisted stories, too. for example, according to today's cnn.com, 'ken and barbie are splitting up.' i mean, do we really care that america's 'most beautiful couple' that just happens to be a fake one (aren't most beautiful couples' relationships fake?) is over? I DON'T THINK SO! according to the couple's "business manager" (cnn.com),

""...Barbie and Ken "feel it's time to spend some quality time -- apart."

"Like other celebrity couples, their Hollywood romance has come to an end," said Arons, who quickly added that the duo "will remain friends."

Arons denied that there was any truth to rumors that the breakup was linked to the Cali (as in California) Girl Barbie, arriving in stores now. To better reflect her single status, Cali Barbie will wear board shorts and a bikini top, metal hoop earrings, and have a deeper tan.

This new style already has attracted a new admirer, Blaine the Australian boogie boarder."" (www.cnn.com) i mean, how pathetic!

in more interesting news, after sitting through 3 hours of cultural and social history of france this morning and yet another hour and a half of frieda's african feminin lit class, i went to the travel agency and booked 3 tickets to go skiing in the alps next weekend. last time we went we went to a ski village called vars. this time we're going to peloux or something like that. it's going to be so much fun!! ranya and avery are coming with me. and then i got a call from anne-caroline. i decided to slurge on a plane ticket for paris this weekend. so i'm leaving saturday morning to go up and see my friends in paris. samuel won't be there 'cause he's going skiing. but i'll be able to see katia and anne-caroline still. and after coming home, i just messed around in the computer lab all night doing housing research for next year, making hotel reservations for paris for this weekend, etc. and my mom just called me. 1 hour 25 minutes we talked. it's always good to talk to her. and seeing as how it's nearly 1am, i'm going to go to bed. i've got a long day tomorrow: packing, grocery store to get staples and vegetables, run, pick up tickets for the airport shuttle for saturday morning and...other things that i just can't think of. ok all, if i don't post tomorrow, i'll post monday after i get back from paris. lata!! :)

i managed to survive yet another 2 hours of french history this morning. ok, the class isn't that bad, but 2 hours of history nonstop is about enough. what's even worse is 4 hours of renaissance lit on tuesdays. wanna talk about something that'll bring tears to your eyes. after class i went to a couple of travel agencies to get ski information. ranya and i wanna go skiing next weekend. she's never been and i wanna try out a new ski village. 22.50euros for transportation and ski lift! and only 10euros to rent skis for the day! so i think we're going to go get our tickets tomorrow. after that, i went to monoprix (sort of a walmart in the middle of downtown) to buy more ear plugs. my neighbors just don't seem to care about anyone. he and his girlfriend think they are the only ones that live on the floor. well, i have a surprise for him coming at the end of the year... mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha... someone told me i should pour a jar of piss underneath his door (which i don't know about that)...at this point, i'm not ruling anything out yet. but i was thinking something along the lines of putting glue in his key hole. that way when it dries he won't be able to get in! (or out for that matter!!) *i'm sitting here smiling just thinking about it* in other news, i just did a whole mess of laundry. now i'm off to casino (grocery store) to get a few things. and honestly - if anyone has any ideas as to what i should do to my neighbor - lemme know!!! :)

i managed to make it through another tuesday. wait - what am i saying? it's only the 2nd tuesday of the semester. i still have another semester of tuesdays to go. oh well. ummm...nothing big to tell today (except for the grueling schedule of classes). ummm...the weather was REALLY nice again today. maybe spring is here to stay! let's hope, at least... umm...i got my cell phone bill today. that was pretty exciting. no, wait. that was yesterday. today it was bank statement day from good old crédit lyonnais. just as exciting. and tonight was leftovers for dinner. you see - just a typical day. perhaps something more exciting will happen tomorrow. but don't hold your breath. i mean, common - this is aix-en-provence we're talking about here.

so guess what happened to me this morning. i was at the grocery store and standing in the check-out line. in my bags (here in france you can buy BIG, heavy-duty bags and reuse them. so i use them as a shopping cart, too) i had a bottle of olive oil. i got up to where i could start putting my items on the belt. well, i pulled something out of the bag that was between the bottom of the bag (which was on the floor) and the bottle of olive oil. CRACK! yeup...i looked back down in my bag and there was this HUGE pool of olive oil!!!!! so i asked for paper towels so i could wipe everything off. the guy who worked there looked at me like he couldn't believe i didn't want the items. i told him that i still wanted them but i just wanted some paper towels. after he went away, i saved what i could and secretly threw the rest of the items and the sac in the trash. i went and got new items and stood in line again. this time i was careful. other than that, i didn't really do anything big. other than my written expression class in which we all ask our dumb prof dumb questions that we already know the answers to and she answers them, nothing big. we could make such great filibustering senate members with the way we 'filibuster' that class!! anyway...i was on cnn.com today and was reading up on the grammy results. i miss life in the US!! i miss the american culture! yeah, yeah, yeah - i know you thought you'd never hear me say that. but i miss american entertainment. oh well...in 5 months i'll be getting back on the plane for good. once i'm home for a couple of months, i'll wish i was back in france. like they say, the grass is always greener over the septic tank.

so i'm sitting here in the computer lab reading my weekly dose of america's best news, www.theonion.com, when guess-who comes and sits down next to me. MR. ARMPIT!! i mean, seriously!! grrrrrr... but today didn't result in much. i got up, showered, ate, read, went to see a really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY dumb movie called 'rrrrrrrrr.' it's about retarded prehistoric french people. don't ask. i fell asleep. all i know is that it was nothing but bastardization of the world's theater culture. but isabelle and i still had fun. we went out for drinks afterward. she gave me some pointers on what i should do with my life. well, i'm not going to go off on a random tangent about the career crisis i'm in, but suffice it to say that i can't decide between a career in international business or law. i think i'll end up going to law school. we'll see. so, 2 pints of beer later, i'm going to finish my readings on theonion.com and go upstairs to read. monsieurs dammes, bonsoir.

so we went to several travel agencies yesterday. yeup...over $400/each for tickets to prague for next weekend. needless to say we're not going. we were thinking of going somewhere here in france on the TGV but even those tickets are expensive. so we decided on renting a car and driving up to geneva, switzerland. it's going to be so much fun!!! and today was just the best. we went to a town called antibes which is right next to nice. when i woke up at 7am this morning i saw that it looked like it was going to be a gloomy day. but it was the exact opposite! the tour bus (our program paid for the day today. well, ok, i paid for it but indirectly) pulled up at 8:30 and we were in paradise 2 hours later. the sun was out and it was soooooo warm!! it felt like middle-spring. we had lunch on the beach. and i mean we took off our socks and shoes, ate and played on the beach in the sand and went wading in the clear but freezing ocean water. it was sooooooo nice!! it seriously felt like being in florida on vacation. then we went to this nice little village called st. paul de provence. it was just a nice, quaint little french village with small streets and plenty of little shops. it was really cool. kirstin, ranya and i all got crêpes. now that we're back in aix, it's time for me to go upstairs and clean my room and...who knows. the night is still young.

thursday is definitely the day of the week that i have to get up the earliest. 7:30am!! oh well. so the 4 of us who are in this history class at 9:30 didn't think we were going to get into it because there were over 70 people in it when she, the prof, was only planning on like 40. she said that she was going to have to kick some people out. i thought for sure she was going to kick all of the foreign students out since the french people seemed to be a priority. however, our 4 names were on her list. so we got in. then we had an academic meeting after class yesterday in the program library. just some reminders on things about the program. complete waste of time. oh well. then i had my african fem. lit. class. i then came back to the dorms to check my email. ranya came up to me in the computer lab and asked if i wanted to go with her to a syrian party (her dad's syrian). so i went. it was 5euros to get in but it was really cool!! well, it was cool once it started. the flyers said it started at 6. when we got there at 6, they told us it was 7. so ranya and i went and hung out at a casino that was right next door. imagine two students in jeans and t-shirts in an establishment that caters to the rich aix-en-provence citizens (which includes almost ALL of the citizens in this town). all of the security guards followed us and i'm sure every camera in the joint was pointed at us. oh well. we just went there to hang out (no, we didn't play any slot machines). then the party started. it was a lot of arabic music and special dances that go along with the music. it was really cool!! but it took them forever to bring out the chow. once they brought out the chow, we headed to a friend of ranya's who was fixing mexican. on our way out of the syrian party, we had to somehow sneak the beer out that ranya had bought to take to mexican night (alcohol is forbidden in the islamic religion). lol!!! i ended up getting suckered into sneaking it out for her. anyway, we ate some REALLY good mexican. ranya and i didn't stay too long because it was already 1 and we both were exhausted. i came back to the dorms and went to bed. after sleeping in this morning, friday, i finally went to run in this park that i had a hard time finding. anne had taken me to the entrance yesterday but it was another 10 minute walk from the sports complex entrance! and then when she took me there yesterday, she was going to go a different direction and told me how to get back to my place from there. well, what usually takes 15-20 minutes took me nearly an hour!! oh well...it felt good to run again this morning. now i'm going to go shower and head into town. erin and i are thinking of going to either besançon (france) next weekend. if we're going to go we'll get our TGV tickets in town today. if not, she said she wants to go to prague. well, i'm not sure about that. if we went to prague we'd have to fly since we're only going to be gone for the weekend. and seeing as how it's only a week away, plane tickets have to be outrageous right now. oh well...we'll see.

well, today was truly a day of a different...breed. so i spent a total of six hours in class today. and it's going to be like that pretty much all semester!! but the good thing is that i still don't have any monday/friday classes and i only have one class on wednesdays and two on thursdays!! and what's even better - 3 of my 5 classes are going to end mid april. so from april to end of june, i'll only have 2 classes to mess with!! woohoo!! won't that be...dandy!? however, today was a disappointing one, too. see, if you've ever been to france (no, not europe, just france), you'll notice that the french let their dogs (wait, they WANT their dogs) to shit all over the sidewalks. so you really can't walk around looking just wherever you please. you have to walk with your head down to the sidewalk making sure you're dodging the sometimes gigantic piles of dog feces. well, i had kinda found it a nice thing and sorta bragged that i have been in france for 6 months and haven't once "marché dans la merde" (stepped in shit). well, well, well...guess what i did today. yeup...steped in a HUGE, HEAPING pile right on the sidewalk!!!!! guess what the first word to come out of my mouth was. yeah, you guessed it. "SHIT!"

friday i got up, packed and headed to hang out at the office before taking the train to miramas. the train left aix 10 minutes when i had only a 17 minute layover. well, after a long stop mid-way, i got off of the train with a minute and a half before my other train left. luckily i made it. friday night at elyane and christians, we ate dinner. and again, since elyane's an elected official of the town, she gets free theatre tickets. so she took me to see some frieda woman's writings put into song. it was okay, but not my thing. then saturday i got up, ate, and then went to see the last samauri (sp??) with christian at the cinema. it was REALLY good, but kinda gory at times. i still loved it, though. saturday night we just hung around the house and didn't really do anything. sunday, we got up early and headed to some small mountains/valleys north of marseille. it was sooooooooooooooooo nice out yesterday!!!!! i'd say it got up to around 70 in the valleys where there's no wind. we walked approx. 15 miles in nearly 23,000 steps!! it was sooooo nice. and at times, i would stop and just listen to the complete and absolute silence that was there. it was almost mind-boggling to know that that kind of silence existed (aside from the occasional breeze blowing weeds). i had a good time. after coming home last night, i took a shower and we ate dinner. we all went to bed pretty early because we were so tired. today i got up and took the train to come back to aix. upon arriving back in aix, i took my stuff home, checked my email and then headed off to the program library to do some work for my written expression class. what a waste of time that class is!! stevie managed to waste an hour of the hour and a half class asking questions that everyone already knew the answers to. i am so proud of her!! nobody in that class can stand it. and instead of spending time on something that she thinks we don't know, we asked her questions on stuff that we didn't know, if you will...just to waste time. it was the best!!! afterwards, i came back home only to find out that alice had invited me to dinner in her room. she fixed some really good food and a lot of people showed up!! it was so much fun. now that dinner's over (it lasted from about 7:30p until midnight), i'm about to go upstairs because i'm still pretty drained from yesterday's walk.