my life with depression.com

brazil, french and crepes in paris

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

i was 20 minutes late to class today. why? because i had to watch the superbowl. i only watched it up to the half time show because they started it at 11:30pm here in paris. i was really surprised to see that the channel two here covered the game. they had a sports caster AND the president of france’s football association. uh… that’s AMERICAN football.

:: click on pictures to see the french “football” people ::

yeah. i guess it does exist here. they even showed a kid who plays it wearing the outfit. oh and the head of the league is french. yup. french… i think that he used to be a rugby player or something, but looking at them and not hearing their french accents, i would’ve thought them to be american. you know the type… big muscles, no brain type. i don’t know if there is an equivalent in france.

so, ask me “qu’est que tu fais ce week-end” and i will talk about my frenchie filled weekend. starting with the brazilians from friday after school… i hung out with a bunch of them. i guess it’s summer break there, so it feels like half of the youth population of brazil is attending class at l’alliance francaise - paris. the plan was to go to a bar on rue mouffetard. we crossed jardin de luxemberge - all bare as it’s winter here, but the naked trees are still impressive … it was so fun! we took the whole place over and the bar man was even playing brazilian music. if people ask me if i’ve ever been to brazil, i guess i can say ‘almost’. here’s my album for it. fun drunk times…

semedi soir (saturday night), my friend steph and i went to a HUGE store called Printemps near the l’opera area. we went for ‘les soldes’ since i haven’t been there yet. we also had un randezvous with his cousins. we ended up going to a bar called corner cat for some drinks and we ate dinner at an italian resto - that’s french slang for restaurant [i’m all talk’n as if i’m so cool ]. such a cute word! how did i do with a bunch of frenchies? surprisingly well. they were impressed with my level of french as i’ve only taken three weeks total. the conversations were not easy to understand and i had to have everything translated, but i was able to catch words here and there. i found out that there is a difference between the word ‘nini’ and ‘nehneh’. obviously i f-ed up a lot of my sentences, but i was still able to be myself in french and i was still able to make jokes in french. i don’t think i insulted anyone… i hope not. i’d hate for them to think that i’m a bitch. oh there was a language barrier here and there, but that was due to my inability to express myself better. <<<>> i usually have patience, but i truely understand what they might be going through. i have the thoughts in my head! but when i open my mouth to share … i get this: ummmmm est-ce que …. ummmm comment on dit …. ummmm oui. oui. oui. uhhhhh no… no … oui! ton petit ami va ici? anyways … i was still impressive! hanging out with frenchies is the same as hanging out with americans except that we ate dinner sooooooooooooooooooooooooo late (9:30) and i got sooooooooooooooooo hungry!

sunday, i hung out with steph and alex. friday was a day when one makes crepes for a holiday called chandalier or something like that…. they let me flip mine in the air… here’s a link for more information…. oh and we ate another gateau de roi AND guess who found the fêve again…. yup MOI!!!! i was soooo excited! i’ve just recently (within the past 4 years) that there are two types of crepes, salt or sugar. i fell in love with the one with butter and sugar… i know TOTALLY FATTENING! it’s okay thought because i’ve been walking so much that i might’ve lost like… 30 pounds!

oh, and i know that this is so gross, but ….. okay, so everyone knows about the merde on the sidewalks in paris … right? what’s merde you ask? well in english it’s dog shit. french words always sound more ….. how do you say … hmmmm more sophisticated doesn’t it? i’d rather say merde than shit…. i don’t know.. how ’bout you? oh, so i took a picture so you can see… i was impressed thought because last thursday on my way to class, i saw an old lady actually pulling a plastic bag out to pick up after her dog. WOW. i wanted to take a picture, but having to clean up your dog’s merde is not exactly a pleasant task.

other posts from this trip: