what a wonderful day!

I really have to post about today. It's truly been a spectacular day.
The beginning of the day didn't start out too differently, or all that great for that matter. I woke up a bit earlier today so that I could make it to the Center to print out a paper that I had due for my grammar class today. I got there around 9am, printed my paper, did some reading and then went to class at 9:30. Class was class, and our teacher was her normal self; eccentric, jovial and a little absent minded. Yet, she's a joy to have as a teacher. After that class we're supposed to have our conversation class at 11am, but that teacher was sick so it was cancelled. I proceeded to go to the Franprix (a grocery store) and to a Leader Price to do some grocery shopping because I was in dire need of groceries. Cheap groceries, too. Blah blah blah I did that, came home, unloaded my groceries, made some lunch and started to do some reading for my next class, which wasn't until 5pm. That's a long way away. I've been fiddling in my mind with the idea of getting my haircut here and whether or not it is entirely possible to do without really messing up my hair. For about a week I've been scouring the internet for pictures of potential haircuts because every time that I decide to get my haircut I tell myself, "Michelle, you're going to get something different this time!" And low and behold I chicken out and I get the same version of the haircut that I've had for much too long. But today, I was feeling adventurous and I needed a bit of a change since I don't change my style of clothes all that often (For those of you that really know me, a sweatshirt and jeans is my staple outfit. Don't worry! I've upgraded a half of a point. It's now a fitted sweatshirt. I won big time). Anyway, about two hours before my class I decided, "What the heck. I am in Paris, so I should just go for it." I walked around my neighborhood because I've been told that there are some fairly priced good and good salons. I finally stumbled across "Mod's Hair" on rue St. Dominique, which is a block from my home. it was 31 euros for first time customers, and compared to the other prices that was really good. I went in knowing what I wanted but had no idea how to express it in french. I kindly asked if the hairdresser (who was this unbelievably amiable older french man) if he spoke english. He said that he did a little, and he really meant a little. Somehow we managed to communicate pretty fluidly so that he and I could be on the same terms. He pulled out some books and flipped through the pages and ended up on the ones that I wanted. He must be a mind reader. After various hand gestures around my head and some interjected french and english words, he began to cut. My heart was pounding!! "What if it isn't what I want? What if it's a waste of money? What if it's the same as I've always gotten?" These questions circled my mind as he snipped away. As he progressed, though, I found myself really liking what he was doing. It complemented my features and was different from what I've done in the past. So, voila! I have a new haircut with bangs and sharp, choppy edges. It's great and I love it. When I went back to the Center for my last class just about everyone I passed commented on my hair and how they liked it! They also said it complemented my eyes really well. Needless to say, I am very pleased and indebted to the nameless french man who cut my hair today.

Deuxieme chose fromidable. Grace An, a former french teacher of mine and the other oberlin students that are in the same program as me, is here in Paris for a month. She emailed all of us asking if we'd like to have dinner with her when she arrived. Naturally we all said yes. Seriously, who would pass up a free meal in Paris?? Anyway, we met at this hip wireless cafe a few blocks from the Center. It was so nice to talk to her about being in Paris and about her times here and about our homestays and Oberlin and about the other students in the program and just about random things. She's a wonderful teacher who seems to be in touch with what she wants and what her students want and need. She's also just really approachable. Anyway, the food was amazing. I had a vegetarian dish with a piece of melon, eggplant, salad, tomatoes and mozzarella, bread with cheese mushrooms and red peppers. THEN, we had dessert. I got the Tiramisu. HOLY MOTHER OF PEARL it was the most heavenly thing I've ingested in a long time. And after, we had coffee. I had a really enjoyable time. The best part was walking to the Metro with her and just talking about the book that she is writing and about Oberlin and such. She also commented on my smile, saying that it was really pretty, and that whenever she needed to see a smile in class she knew that I would always have one. That probably sounds weird, but it was really nice to hear from her. I needed that boost of confidence because lately I've been feeling a bit lonely. In my experiences just today (and other days, too) I've learned that language barriers can empower someone to commit to an act, or it can totally isolate someone, even though they're surrounded by throngs of people. Can you catch my drift? When I wanted to get my haircut today, I had to buck up and just go for it. I put my trust in the hairdresser and it came out fine, whereas back home I let my apprehensions get the best of me and end up talking my way (inadvertently) out of what I essentially wanted. Without being able to communicate fluently I wasn't able to do that, but I got exactly what I wanted!! As for the loneliness, when I'm not able to fully express myself I can feel disconnected to the people around me and on a lower level then them, thus unable to be understood. Anyway, this is a really long post, but I just really wanted to post it. I apologize for bragging about my hair...i don't mean to sound vain but I really like it! I wish I could take a picture to show you all!

Bises!

just a tidbit

I told you in my most recent post that if I thought of something else to write I would post it. You know how the french (well, europeans in general) are generally thinner than us in the US, well, I'm pretty sure I was one of the biggest (not height-wise....they and the rest of europe's got me beat) girls there. That made me a bit self conscious. Also because I don't speak that well and I don't understand a lot of slang especially at the rate at which they talk, it's hard for me to pick up on what a lot of people are saying. I was pitching back and forth with one of the 17 year olds Lea and one of her friends came up to talk to her. They were talking and then the guy said something to me and I didn't quite catch what he was saying. Then she told him that I was american, and both he and the older guy that he was with kind of stared/glared at me. Needless to say I was uncomfortable and a little angry. I don't know if they actually had harsh feelings towards me because I am an american ( I hope not), but that wasn't quite the reaction I was looking for. Whatever. Je m'en fous (I don't care). Also, juste un petit truc a ajouter. I found some solace today when I looked at the Italian team. Most of their players were short (like me, yay!!) and they were also built like me. You know, big hips, legs that aren't the size of twigs, big noses. I was comforted to know that there is an entire country where it's not absolutely a shock when I am 5 feet tall with big hips. Maybe one day I'll live there. I definitely want to visit it while I'm here. The next language that I want to tackle is italian, then spanish. Hopefully I can do them both at the same time since they are so similar. Then it's german and maybe an asian language, preferable korean. Is that too much? I don't know..I guess I'll just have to live all over the world in order for me to learn these languages best. :) Anyway, I need to finish my homework.

J'ai fais au softball ce weekend!

`I played softball this weekend! OH MY GOODNESS did it feel wonderful (absolutely wonderful) to play softball. It was a tournament that was organized by some group, and I played with a team called BCF Paris (Baseball Club de France, Paris). Let me first tell you how it all began...

One of the first days after I moved in with my host family, they asked me what I liked to do and one of my first responses (naturally) was to say I like to play softball. Softball here, unlike in the US, is not popular or even well known, so my host mother was a little confused when I said that. She didn't know what it was. Neither did the father. So I explained that it was like baseball, only for girls (les femmes). My "mother" offered to help me find a place to practice and play, so she called this sports service for paris and she found 2 places where I could play. 2, in all of Paris. Note that there are almost 2 million people just in the actual city of paris, and there are only 2 places to play. Anyway, I called one of the places (BCF) and got in touch with the coach. The coach then forwarded my call to a player named Halima, who then called me. She seemed excited that I wanted to play and we got things set up for this weekend for me to play. We had a meeting place at a metro stop and then we carpooled about 40 minutes outside of Paris to a park with a softball field and a baseball field. OK, you know how the french do that kissing thing on the cheek to people they are familiar with or meet? Yeah, I know about that too but my knowledge of the seemed to fail me when I actually needed it. When I finally met Halima and the other players carpooling together She said "Hi, I'm Halima" and leaned in for the "bisous" (as it is called in french) and like a trained dog I stuck out my hand. Silly silly silly me. She laughed, I laughed, and we were awkward. She said it was ok because I was new and may not be accustomed to that form of greeting. When we made it to the fields, I went on the "bisous" the other players on the team.
I was very happy to be out there, but in the back of my mind I knew that I hadn't thrown a softball or played in a game for almost 2 months, and that's a really long time for me. I'm really sore right now, but that's besides the point. I surprised myself, though and was able to throw and to pitch. I pitched a game and we won. We actually won all of our games. it was tournament so saturday we played 3 and today we played 2. We ended up winning the entire thing and we got a trophy, as well as cake and wine at the end. It was satisfying.

The team. The team is comprised of people of all ages. The youngest being 17 years old and the oldest being..I don't know maybe mid 30s? early 40s? They all looked young to me and they played great and with a great attitude. Each time a player came in from batting, whether or not they got a hit or got out, they went down the line of players on the bench and gave them high-fives. Lots of support from the other members and never was a bad word uttered from any of them. Great team spirit and they were all out there just to have fun. No pressure at all. A very humbling experience indeed. Almost all of the older players on the team knew english but I told them that I prefer to have them speak in french because I'll learn faster that way. Only when I really needed to know something did they give in and tell it to me in english. But I understood mostly everything that was said to me and I feel that I've already picked up a lot (in terms of slang and just speaking faster and comprehending more) even in just two days.

The games. We played 5 games, but 3 out of those 5 we played a team from Italy. It was really cool to listen to them speak and cheer in italian. It makes me want to learn italian. I learned how to cheer in french, too. "Allez!!" (pronounced Al-lay) means: Come on! Let's go! Go! and "Bien fait!" means well done, or good job, "Bien essaye" (pronounced: be-ye ess-ai-yai) means good try, (literally well tried) and "bien lance!" (pronounced be-ye lawn-say) means good pitch! nice throw! well thrown! So anyway, that's a brief overview of french cheers. There's more, of course, but I don't know a lot and I don't feel like typing it all. I played third for all of the games except one, and that is when I pitched. I also batted 2nd in the lineup all weekend, which was odd for me but I got hits. I should let you know that since softball isn't as big of a sport as it is in the US, the playing level is also not the same. It was horrible or anything, but the pitching mainly was below what I am used to. I had a lot of fun, though, and that's all I wanted to do. I will continue to play with them as long as I can.

After the games on saturday we went to a teammate's house and cooked dinner. There was chicken and merguez (thinner sausages..I don't know how they taste, though, because I don't eat meat) and this potato-egg kish thing that one of the players who grew up in Mexico made. That was really good. Then there was salad and dessert and then....Wii!! I have never played the Wii before, but man is it fun! I boxed and played tennis against another person on the team. It was nice to play and not worry about trying to speak in french or understand what they were saying. I have to say that I completely sucked (je suis nul, in french) at boxing but I rocked at tennis. I highly recommend playing the Wii at least once, if not more times, in your life. It's much more interactive and fun than other video games. After that very long day (i got up at 7am, and didn't get home until 12:35am) i came back home, went to bed and then proceeded to wake up again at 7am so that I could play again. Ouch. my legs and my arms are so sore. Ok, that's all I can think of to write right now, but I am sure that I will think of something later about softball this weekend. Hope you enjoyed the post as much as I did playing softball!

FOOD!

I've been prodded by some folks who will remain nameless to post about the kinds of food that I've been eating. I usually cook for myself, and that's never exciting because it's just cereal, chick peas, lentils, bread, (nutella) some veggies and some fruits. Eggs, too. Can't forget those eggs. I have had some amazing crepes in the time that I've been here so far. You can put anything in a crepe. I had one with egg and cheese, and the next one was one with apple compote! Either way, they're delicious. I had Chinese food with a friend a while ago, but that was just greasy and not good, so I won't do that again. The family eats pretty normal things, like chicken and fish and rice, vegetables and so on. it's just the way that they eat which is different. Meals take a long time to eat and there's an etiquette that I haven't quite nailed yet. it's really hard for me to find vegetarian food, but there are some Indian restaurants that I want to check out and yesterday I stumbled into the Jewish quarter of the city, so there was a lot of falafel, so I think I will try that out too. OHH, panini's are great here. They're cheap and they're filling so if I am in a rush or something, I can get a panini and that will be all that I need. Panini's are just a baguette cut open with stuff inside (i usually get the tomato and mozzarella) and then grilled. It's so good. Oh yeah, the bread here is exceptionally better than anywhere. There' so much of it too. The coffee that I've had has also been exceptional, for a cheap price too. There are Starbucks here, but I absolutely refuse to buy coffee from them because it's more expensive here due to the exchange rate, so why would I buy something here when I can get it for cheaper at home?? Also, there are much better and much cheaper places with a better atmosphere than Starbucks. Don't get me wrong, I do buy their coffee when I'm home, but for now I am taking a break. Is it lunch time, yet?? All this talk about food is making me hungry. Anywhoo, I am going to go do some homework before class. I only have one class on fridays and it's from 2:30-4pm. Have a great day!

j'ai mal a la tete

So while being slightly homesick I scoured some facebook pictures and came across This one of the kids. It's now only of Joey because I cropped it to emphasize the look on his face. It really is priceless and makes me laugh every time I see it. Just so you all know, this was from my mom's 50th birthday party. She doesn't look 50 at all, I think. She's active and lively and on top of her stuff. Ok. I'm going to go to bed, but here is the picture.

more pictures, just for fun

These are just some more pictures. There is one from the catacombs, the view from my window, a picture of roller bladers en masse, some more pictures from the Louvre and the Princess Diana Memorial. Enjoy!

pictures! (from ruth)

I don't know how to work around these photos. I'm basically just taking up space to make it look a little better. Enjoy! If you want to know where all of these pictures came from, you should refer to my post from awhile ago about my weekend with ruth. It's pretty informative and will let you in on where these pictures came from.





Since my camera doesn't want to cooperate with me, I have procured some pictures of paris from my wonderful friend and catcher, Ruth Leah Pine Allanbrook. So, here they are. Enjoyment (hopefully) ensues. The picture with the rabbit is from the Metro, and it says, "Don't put your hands on the doors! You could be pinched very hard."

The one next to it is from a window inside of the Louvre. The picture at the very top, the one of the skull, is obviously from the catacombs. I hope he/she doesn't come back to haunt me.... The one with the gold dome is of a cool looking building. I probably should know what it is, but I don't. Then there's a Metro entrance. I love the metro.