Le Pamplemousse Aveugle

Halloween Costume?

2011-10-24T23:01:00.000-05:00

Faithful blog readers,

I have a serious question for you. What should I be for Halloween?? I am totally stumped. I love making costumes and dressing up, so I always look forward to coming up with a Halloween costume. But this year, nothing is jumping out at me as the right thing to do. Here are my ideas so far:

The White Witch from Narnia:

The appeal of this costume is that it is easy. I have a white dress (from Prom) and a fake sheepskin rug and crazy blond hair, so I think it would only require me to get some icicles for a crown. Plus, I could do some fun, icy makeup. The downside? I'm not sure people would know what I am, and it's not a character that I'm in love with. I'm not even that familiar with the books/movies. Also, it isn't very creative and doesn't require me to sew anything. I like sewing things.

Cinderella:

I had started making a dress like the one above last year, but then I got stuck trying to attach the bodice and the skirt and I ran out of time. So I ended up being Alice instead. But now I have half of a Cinderella dress, and I would really love to finish sewing a ball gown. That would be a real accomplishment. Plus, Cinderella is cute, and I like being cute. I mean, how often do you get to wear a ball gown in your life? Basically never. The downsides? Cinderella might be too cutesy for a grown-up woman, and I'm not sure if I would be able to finish the dress to my satisfaction soon enough. But: a ball gown. I want to wear a ball gown.

Bjork:

I already have a dress like this. I made it for Halloween a couple of years ago, and it's one of my best costumes ever. Pros: I already have it ready to go, Bjork is awesome, and even if people don't know who you are, they just think you have a really terrible swan costume. Cons: I've done it before, people have no idea who you are, and some people would consider my beige undershirt to be "immodest"/suggestive.

So those are the ideas I've had. I've also briefly entertained thoughts of being a Beatle, Alice in Wonderland (again), another princess, Audrey Hepburn, Barbie, or a 50s girl/woman. Essentially, I want to have a costume that I think is fun to make and wear. I also need it to be work-appropriate, although I may end up doing multiple costumes if it's not something I want to wear to the office.

Blog readers, do you have any brilliant ideas? Any opinions on which of the above would be best? I'd love to hear them. Please comment and help me decide.

In other news, I am on a cooking roll tonight. I made broccoli to eat with my cheese sauce, then tomato sauce to freeze, then a huge batch of banana bread, and now I'm roasting some potatoes for work tomorrow. I <3 food and cooking it. I'm trying to start cooking more now that I'm settling into a routine, but some days it's just hard. But when you smell and taste the results, it's totally worth it. My tomato sauce is think and bright red and the sugars in the tomatoes have caramelized to give it this wonderful richness. It's better than any tomato sauce I've ever purchased. When I see the results of just chopping and simmering, I wonder why more people don't appreciate home cooking. It's worth it, people.

October Update

2011-10-22T00:57:00.000-05:00

I want to get back into blogging. I really do. I just can't seem to figure out how to get things done now that I'm working full-time. I especially don't want to do things like type up a blog post after spending all day staring at a screen. But tonight, I am just home by myself, enjoying a Psych marathon and some heirloom broccoli, and I figured I'd catch myself up on my blog posts.

So. What have I been up to since July? Honestly, not much. I had a birthday, which was nice. I really enjoyed my birthday, since I took the day off and just did a bunch of my favorite things (breakfast at Communal, first massage of my life, made crepes and had friends over).

In September, I made good use of the Farmers Market produce. Peach and tomato season is my favorite! I bought tons of tomatoes and made some amazing tomato sauce. I'm going to make more and freeze it to extend the season's bounty well into the winter. I also bought 25 lbs of peaches and froze what I couldn't eat. It was the best decision.

What else. My Dad came into town for a while, which was great. I loved having him here, and it makes me super sad that my family doesn't live closer. Can't wait for Christmas to see them all again!

I also went to a couple of nice concerts. I saw Bright Eyes at the free concert in SLC, and it was just like being 15 again. So much teenage angst. I also saw the Fleet Foxes, which was kind of the opposite experience. It was super mellow and beautiful. I'm really glad I got to go.

I guess the major activity of my summer was moving. I moved into a really cute house that I love. There are just three of us now, and I love having so much more space and quiet time. It's even been fun trying to furnish the place, which I was kind of dreading. I've learned a lot about finding great deals on Craigslist, and I am super proud of the fact that we got the basic furniture for our whole house for like $30. I did then invest in a new mattress, a rug, and a piano, but those weren't totally necessary.

Well, that's my summer in a nutshell. My news of this week is that at work we've finally finished collecting data for the study I'm managing. We were shooting to have 10,000 total surveys, but we have just blown way past that goal, and it looks like we'll now have about 21,000. I can't believe it. It's certainly been keeping me busy!

Today was also a pretty interesting day. I was planning to go camping tonight with some friends, so I left work early. I was feeling really great about that decision, so I decided to go get myself some lunch before heading home and packing. Unfortunately, when I came out with my food, my car wouldn't start. It wasn't even a dead battery. The key just wouldn't turn to the ignition position. So then I had to call a bunch of repair shops and then a tow truck and wait around in the parking lot for like 2.5 hours. Luckily, my credit card has free roadside assistance, so the towing was free and they were very nice and helpful. I definitely appreciated that since it was kind of stressful. I had no idea what to do in that kind of situation. But it worked out. Then I had to have my grandma come and pick me up, and now my car is in the shop for the third time in the last six weeks. So much for my afternoon off!

I feel pretty fine about missing the camping trip, though, because it means that I have a nice, quiet evening to myself. I called my mom, made a yummy dinner, and worked on Halloween costume ideas. Sometimes it's good not to be productive.

I'm also going to attempt to have more variety in the types of things that I post. So if you, my handful of readers, could let me know what would be the most interesting to write about, that will help me find direction in this blog. Here's a little poll:

Seattle

2011-07-20T12:35:00.002-05:00

So I decided to go to Seattle a couple of weekends ago. We decided to go mid-day Thursday and left that night. It was crazy. We stayed overnight in Boise and slept outside on the most magnificent porch in the best weather imaginable. We arrived in Seattle Friday afternoon and spent the weekend catching up with friends and family and enjoying the break from Utah. I especially loved the food there. Utah isn't the place to be for great food. We went to the Theo chocolate factory, which was delicious and informative. I love good chocolate. We also got some delicious berries from the Pike Place market, which was the best! I love summer produce.

Now I am back in Provo and back to work. We had our firm-wide meetings last week, which was informative and exhausting. I learned a lot about where I work, got to meet all of the important people, and got a chance to understand my role in the organization better. However, I also had to stay after work for social engagements, which was fun but tiring. I am definitely an introvert.

Now it's back to the daily grind, with 6 am conference calls to Asia, looking for housing, and trying to figure out how to get my car fixed but still get to work. Wow. I sound like such a grown-up. I mean, I am one, but I'm still in denial. I am super glad that I at least like my job enough that showing up for work every day isn't depressing. I feel like there are lots of people in my position in life who just hate their jobs and have no idea how to move from college to a satisfying career. While I can't pretend like I'm an expert on the subject, I feel like I've learned a lot about finding jobs and about how to deal with the working world vs. college. I'm pretty content with my life how it is now, and that is amazing. I am also very relieved that I have a stable, paying job and a plan for my life for the next few months. It's the best :)

So... here are some links for you all. I found way too many things to post on facebook.

This is a tumblr that pretty much describes my life. If I lived in a catalog, that is.

I like this. I like the comparisons that show the equivalent carbon emissions from different amounts of meat. I haven't read it in detail yet, but I wanted to share anyway.

Best. Song. Ever. Please listen to the lyrics carefully. You won't be disappointed.

I need to explore this blog more, but it's about food and history and I like that.

I <3 the internet.

Post-Graduation

2011-07-06T11:36:00.002-05:00

Life is crazy sometimes. So much has changed since April. Here's a quick summary:

- I graduated

- I was unemployed for about six weeks

- I went to Bryce Canyon with my dear friend Beth

- I volunteered at the MTC like three times a week

- I got a job in Provo without even applying

So now I am a full-time career woman. I still am not sure how that happened, but I think it's the right thing for me right now. I'm still adjusting to the idea of being settled in Provo for a while, but I'm more excited than sad about it. I just need to find some housing and I think I'll feel pretty good about it.

So I got this job by getting a random phone call on a Wednesday, interviewing later that day, getting an offer on Friday, and accepting on Saturday. It was a crazy rush. I still feel like I made an impulsive decision, but I felt good about it. It was hard for me to decide because I felt like logically, it wasn't the best decision. I didn't have a lot of information about the company or the position, and I wasn't planning on working somewhere like Provo, where the networking opportunities are more limited, but I just sort of had a feeling that this was the right thing to do. I never make decisions based on my gut reaction, but this time, it just seemed like everything fell into place.

My job is going well so far. I work at a small consulting firm, and I like it here. People are nice and I feel like there are real opportunities to progress. Plus, I am getting paid. I seriously underestimated how hard it is to be unemployed. I felt really lazy and useless and directionless. I had a hard time not spending money since I had nothing to do all day. I really stressed about taking this job since it came up all of a sudden, but I am so glad that I did. Being unemployed for several more months would have been really stressful and it probably wouldn't have led to anything significantly better than what I ended up doing. So here I am!

Now I'm learning to balance a full-time work schedule and a college-student-on-summer-break social life. It's been fun but weird. I've had dinner and slept in a treehouse, picnicked at the rooftop concert, enjoyed summer evenings on our porch, gone up the canyon, baked some pies, and attended an all-night concert. It's been so nice and summery, but it really makes it hard to get enough sleep and want to go to work. Luckily, this job hasn't been insanely demanding so far. When I go home, I go home. I don't have to work crazy hours. I am realizing now that I would have hated my life had I chosen to take some more prestigious but crazy-demanding job. There are more important things to me than money and prestige, even though I forget that sometimes.

One last thing: most people impulse-buy things like clothes when they are online late at night. I bought a basket full of local produce. I feel really good about that decision.

Final Paper

2011-04-15T22:23:00.002-05:00

I'm writing my last major paper of college. That is a great thing, because I hate writing big papers, even if I like my topics. I'm writing on La Haine, a great French film that you should watch as long as you don't mind tons of profanity. I have tons to say, but no real sense of what my thesis is. It's weird for me to have so much written with no organization, but I'm fine with it. At least I know that no matter what, I won't be scrambling at the last minute to fill up space.

Today I bought some clothes, and I am so thrilled about it. I know they say that shopping doesn't really make you happy, but I feel like it does. I love getting new clothes, especially when I get good deals. I don't go shopping that often, so it's especially exciting. I'm also getting a summer dress, and I can't wait for it to arrive because then it will really feel like summer! I hope it's cute in real life. I hate buying clothes online for that very reason. Also, if any of my dear readers have clothes you want to get rid of, I am always open to taking things off of your hands. I want to get rid of some of my clothes, and I am very willing to organize some kind of clothing barter system :)

Today I ate chocolate ganache for dinner. I don't really recommend that.

Do you know what I feel like doing right now? Showering and then doing my hair. I never want to do that, except for when I don't want to work. I feel the same way about blog posts, and many other activities.

Guess what? I graduate in less than a week. That is crazy. I know I've been in college for five years already, but I still don't feel like I should be able to be a real adult. I hate it. I never want to leave college. Except for right now, because I don't really want to write long papers anymore. I just want to go to a school where I can listen to lectures and then never do homework except in my foreign language classes where it is actually fun. Someday I will make a school like that. Just for me.

Do you want to know the best new idea I've had for a life plan? Here it is: I'm going to take a road trip from Norway to Japan. I've always wanted to visit both, and what better way to do it then on a road trip? It's like the classic American thing to do, so I figure I'll take that idea and transpose it to a European/Asian setting. Then I'll write a memoir about it and make a lot of money. Mostly I think it's crazy that Russia borders both Norway and Japan.

Here is a link to a great clip from La Haine that I may or may not show as a part of my presentation tomorrow. You can watch it and pretend that I'm telling you all about how the director uses the mise-en-scene to convey the sense of entrapment that the characters feel. Now I'm off to bed after spending a whole day doing zero work on the most important paper of my college career.

Life Plans

2011-04-11T19:42:00.002-05:00

Here are some potential options for my future. Let me know which ones you think are best, and I'll add more as I come up with them. I would really appreciate some input, dear readers!

1. Move to Madison and have a regular job.

2. Move to D. C. and pray really hard for a job.

3. Stay in Provo forever while working menial jobs and searching for a husband (lots of people do it)

4. Write memoirs for a living (includes searching for good experiences to base my memoirs on)

5. Move to Norway and search for a husband so I can stay there forever

6. Become a hermit and live off the land

7. Start a hippie commune/farm

8. Start a band

9. Start an internet-based "interpretive news" program

10. Write conspiracy theories

11. Become a professional matchmaker

12. Sew costumes and hope people buy them

13. Start an Etsy store (it can't be that hard, right??)

14. Be one of the princesses at Disneyland (it's like playing dress-up every day!)

Weekend Weekend

2011-04-10T23:33:00.002-05:00

I don't really have anything to say, I just don't want to do real work, even though I totally need to. First, a list of significant events of the weekend:

- went to a senior celebration and won many things, including a T-Shirt, a magnet, a decision maker, 5 pens, and lots of free food.

- rear-ended someone. worst idea ever. now my car has no grille and looks sad :(

- filmed the best FHE movie ever and starred as Bathsheba.

- applied for Food Corps, which sounds like a really wonderful way to spend a year of my life.

Now, a list of things that I need to do this week:

- write my 10 pg. film paper

- econ homework (last assignment!!)

- read Njalssaga (approx. 300 pgs)

- make up toolboxes

- cultural activity papers

- make up econ essay

That sounds pretty reasonable, I guess, but I am having the hardest time being motivated. Also, what's really stressing me out is the film paper and reading Njalssaga, because those are two pretty huge assignments. If you've got any great ideas about how to write a paper on "La Haine," please let me know. I'm going to need all the help I can get.

Madison

2011-03-21T22:28:00.003-05:00

Things they have in Madison that they don't have in Provo:

- Midwestern accents

- Ugly people

- An obsession with local, artisanal cheese

- Homeless people

- Smokers

- A state capitol

- Liberals

- Protesters

- Tall buildings

- Alcohol

I'm not really sure how I feel about this place. On the one hand, it has a way more urban feel than Provo, and I like that, but it also seems a little run-down and it's really focused on the college/party-school scene. Also, I'm not sure I could handle the winters here. The lakes are still mostly frozen, and it stays COLD here for a long time. Also, I would be bored and I'd miss my Provo social life, as lame as it sometimes is. So far, my business trip has been a success. I mean, I made it through both of my flights and I spontaneously bought 11 different types of cheese. What more could I want?

Gode Nyheter

2011-01-26T22:19:00.002-06:00

So since I have been too busy/too lazy/too boring to come up with interesting posts for my blog, I'm going to use it as a way to broadcast my good news i.e. brag about things. I actually haven't had the greatest couple of weeks, but when I make a list like this, it puts things into perspective a little.

1. I got an interview for a potential post-graduation job. It's nothing big, since I'm sure they're interviewing a million people, but it makes me feel like I may actually have some skills that people are willing to pay me for. Only downside: the job is in Madison, Wisconsin.

2. My new job is fun. I actually enjoy my time there because it's relaxing and interesting. This has never happened to me before.

3. I watched the State of the Union. I enjoy things like that. Also, I have a crush on the President.

4. My mom sent me a care package. That hasn't happened since I was a freshman. It was so cute and such a nice surprise! I got several yummy food things (pomegranate glaze? awesome!) and a sweet note from my sister.

5. I discovered the best addition to a smoothie ever: molasses. Sounds gross, but it adds just the right sweetness and depth of flavor. I find that smoothies I make are always too tart and don't taste enough like fruit, but a little molasses really brightens the flavors while taking away some of the tartness.

6. I straightened my hair today. It feels wonderfully soft and clean. Sometimes I forget how much I love that feeling.

List

2011-01-13T22:54:00.002-06:00

I just feel like listing some things that I'm excited about. I've had a good week :)

- I got a new job! It's actually in the same place as my old job, but the pay is better and it's WAY less boring.

- I got an excellent LSAT score despite my lack of preparation! I didn't think I would be worried about how I did, but once I actually took the test, I started to wonder if I had wasted my money by not studying AT ALL. But in the end, it all worked out. I think my score is competitive enough that I could really go anywhere, provided they think I'm interesting enough to admit.

- I am finally getting over my cold

- I made some delicious Atole/vanilla pudding drink tonight

- I love my classes maybe more than any semester yet.

Basically, this week has been a really good one for me. I'm hoping that it bodes well for the rest of the semester, since wintertime can be rough and I have a lot of big life decisions to make in the next few weeks/months.

Post-Christmas

2010-12-27T17:32:00.002-06:00

Christmas this year was one of the best I can remember. I love being home with my family, and this year has been especially fun for no particular reason. As far as gifts go, I got a new computer, which is so great considering that my old one was really on its way out. It was so slow that it couldn't play YouTube videos and the tiny processor couldn't deal with any program that came out in the last five years. I really wasn't expecting it, either, which made it all the more exciting. I also got some post-war neo-Realist films that I am excited to watch and a cookbook about traditional cooking that explains everything from making tomato sauce to raising your own cows. It is so great. Then, of course, I got a lot of candy and weird little things. I got the best kind of presents: things you love but didn't know you needed. I was also happy that my family liked my gifts for them, since I like that more than receiving presents anyway.

I also have had some time over break to catch up on sleep and make a chocolate orange cake, which was yummy and fun. I'm planning to do some more baking this week to make sure I take advantage of a fully-stocked and clean kitchen. I've also been catching up on my news magazines and reading a lot. I found this article in the Economist that sums up my fears about my educational future pretty well. One thing I have not been doing is figuring out my future plans. Still too stressful. I promise I will figure it out at some point, I'm just wondering when that will be...

endelig, c'est les vacances

2010-12-18T00:26:00.002-06:00

I am officially done with finals, as of now, meaning a few minutes before midnight on the last day. I don't think I've ever procrastinated quite so badly, and I certainly will have the bad grades to show for it. I just got the lowest grade I've ever received on a final, and I'm probably going to have to retake the class because I'm not sure I can live with myself otherwise.

Anyway, enough complaining. I'm going to share some links that I think are great. First of all, here is a nice article from NPR about Nigella Lawson's recipes for chocolate orange cake and peanut butter hummus. I can vouch for the hummus recipe, since I made a version of it and it was really good. I can't wait to make the cake too!

To keep with the cooking theme, here is a list of NPR's best cookbooks for 2010. I would gladly accept any as a Christmas gift.

Here is a link to a story about Iceland from the other day. This is remarkable for several reasons. First, Iceland was in the news! Secondly, the Great Cod Wars are mentioned. Those are my favorite part of Icelandic history, I think, except for maybe when they declared independence from Denmark. People shouldn't be so ignorant of the Cod Wars, in my opinion. Finally, the Scottish guy calls the Icelanders Vikings. Vikings are awesome, always.

I also found this, which is a great explanation of the legal issues surrounding the fact that the new healthcare law requires people to buy health insurance. It's really worth a listen, since they have legal experts actually explain the legal issues and precedents involved. I couldn't figure out what the debate was about before, but now I feel like I finally get it.

Finally, I liked this article because it is about two things that I'm interested in talking about: linguistics and patriotism. Interesting stuff. The best part, of course, is the line, "She only goes out with men who are under God." Or maybe the suggestion that we write the pledge of allegiance in Anglo-Saxon.

I also want to share this, which is just one song by one of my favorite singing groups. Their Christmas CDs are on constant repeat chez moi. I promise you'll like it if you listen to some of their other stuff, too. This is also a beautiful version of a favorite Christmas song of mine, although the singer definitely has a Swedish accent, not a French one.

Also, I want my life to be this cool and full of Joseph Gordon-Leavitt.

Well, now that it's midnight, I should probably start packing or something. The end of the semester is always a weird time because it feels like I should be done with everything, but it also feels like I'm forgetting a lot of what I need to do. Which is why I need to start doing something despite how late it is.

Facetious list of things I need in my future husband

2010-12-08T00:00:00.003-06:00

- Speaks a Germanic language (in order of preference: Norwegian, Icelandic, German, Faroese, Danish, Swedish)

- Knows how to grow things

- Willing to live off the grid/be a hermit

- Likes cycling

- Somehow of a racial background that allows me to both have blonde and mixed-race children, because I want both

- Will always provide me with speculoos and fromage blanc/frais

- Loves classical music

This list is not exhaustive, by any means. There are plenty more unrealistic things that I want.

(Apparently I shouldn't stay up so late... and I definitely shouldn't be allowed to write blog posts after being in the library this long)

Max Manus

2010-12-06T13:34:00.003-06:00

I just have to say that I watched a great Norwegian movie this weekend, called "Max Manus." (Please click on the links, because they are great... if you like Norwegian WWII films)

First of all, I was impressed with myself that I could understand an entire movie in Norwegian. This alone made the last three semesters of Norwegian totally worth it. Secondly, it is a great WWII movie, and I love learning about WWII. Also, I love foreign films. I guess it's obvious why I liked it so much.

I also decided this weekend that Norwegian is my favorite language. This is obviously something that is likely to change, and maybe soon, but for now, I am really loving Norwegian. There are a few reasons for this:
1. it is really easy for English-speakers to learn
2. it sounds really cool
3. it is Germanic, which is my current favorite language family
4. I have Norwegian ancestors
5. I <3 my Norwegian class/teacher
6. I like the a with a circle over it a lot

I could probably list more reasons, but honestly, who needs a reason to love a language like Norwegian? I think this blog post may set a record for how many times someone can use the word Norwegian in just a few paragraphs.

In other news, it is now the last week of classes. I'm less busy than most people probably are, but I still can't believe how quickly this semester has flown by. It's crazy! I'm still not sure what I'm doing with my life six months or so from now, which is more stressful than finals. There are so many great options out there, so I'm not particularly worried about finding something great to do, but I just can't seem to figure out what option(s) is/are best. Some days I want to go to law school, and some days I just want to pick up and move to Iceland/Norway/France/etc. and do something totally useless for a few years. I'm sure I'll find something, but until I do, I will continue to be stressed out and confused by everything.

Sorry for the weird post. I never know what to write in a blog post and I can never seem to get my thoughts on paper to sound as interesting as they do in my head...

Fall Semester 2010

2010-11-02T23:55:00.002-05:00

Tauntaun sleeping bag. Want or need? Need, I think.

I haven't written here in forever. Probably because I'm having the busiest semester of my whole life and my computer has been broken for a couple of months. I haven't had time to do anything I enjoy, like cooking or sleeping or eating or watching Mad Men. I haven't even been keeping up with my favorite cooking blogs! It's been sad. Luckily, I now have a working computer and I'm getting a little more caught up in school, so I may have more time for fun. For instance, I made mashed potatoes and my favorite cookies tonight. I haven't made anything at all in weeks, so this is a big deal.

I'm taking classes in three languages this semester, and only my voice lessons are taught in English. It's way more difficult than I thought it would be keeping all of them straight in my head. I've had no problem doing French and Icelandic or Norwegian at the same time, but adding Arabic on top of it all has been really weird. It doesn't help any that the class moves really quickly and has a lot of homework, which makes me feel constantly overwhelmed even when I'm not actually behind. But it's very cool at the same time, since I can now read a new alphabet. I'm a nerd and love things like that.

To end, I'm going to write a few sentences in the vernacular of my brain. Des fois jeg snakker several langues a la fois. Það er veldig gott að je peux comprendre det som jeg veut dire. Jeg skriver ekki in العربية because det er for vanskelig a ecrire. Noen ganger je pense que jeg skal bli folle vegna þess að ég kann ikke talar English. Je vais mourir/jeg skal døde/ég skal deyja/انا حموت.

Birthday

2010-08-24T15:47:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday to me! I am writing a blog post for the first time in forever to say just a few things.

1. I am home, and it's been wonderful.

2. I love my family.

3. I can't believe I'm 22.

c) I need to learn how to make tacos like they do at my favorite taco place. I've eaten there three times in a week.

Hope you're all excited for school to start...

Summer is nice

2010-07-28T23:14:00.002-05:00

I don't know exactly why, but I've gotten out of the habit of blogging. You would think that I'd have more time for things like this in the summer, but for some reason I have been really busy doing nothing in particular. Here is a list of some noteworthy things that have happened to me recently:

- I got a job

- I looked at some awesome old documents at work

- I cooked some tofu and liked it

- I read a book (David Lebovitz's "The Sweet Life in Paris," in case you wanted to know)

- I CLEANED MY ROOM

- I ran out of contact lenses and now I have to wear my glasses all the time

- I bought some J. Crew shorts for $1.50

- I rewatched a season of Mad Men and watched "A Hard Day's Night" aka my favorite movie

- I bought a basil and a coriander plant and they have survived three whole weeks with me

- I found out a million friends are getting married

- I officially got permission to stay another semester

- I declared my music minor (finally)

- I painted my toenails

- My arms and the tops of my feet are tan (it's weird)

- I saw Modest Mouse and Beirut for free (and observed many of the current trends)

- I have eaten/cooked more good food than I can possibly describe

- I haven't colored my hair since January (that's not a good thing)

- I found a place to live in the Fall (well, more like in three weeks when I get kicked out of my current residence)

- My French Hello Kitty day planner ends this week and I am too sad to buy a replacement

I could go on, but as you can see from this list, my summer hasn't been all that blog-worthy. Also, I apparently like parenthetical asides (like this one).

A New Post

2010-05-25T22:29:00.003-05:00

I haven't written a blog post in over a month. I attribute this to the fact that I've been busy with school, but I also haven't had anything really good to write about. I could have told you about all of my kitchen successes recently, but I didn't. I also could have complained about how much work I've had to do lately, but I didn't think that would be very interesting. Basically, I haven't had any brilliant thoughts or ideas to put on my blog for my very large internet readership.

It's Spring Term here now, and it's crazy to think that the term is already halfway over. Pretty soon I'll have finals again. I interviewed for a job today, and I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get it. Then I'll actually have something to do during the summer and I'll be able to replenish my bank account.

In closing, since this update has said absolutely nothing of value, I'll leave you with a link to a very nice Icelandic band.

Eyjafjallajökull

2010-04-20T16:37:00.002-05:00

It's pronounced like ey-uh-fyat-lah-yuk-utl. Sort of.

Sorry newscasters, it's kind of a tough word to pronounce.

But not that tough.

Healthcare links

2010-03-25T22:58:00.003-05:00

This post is mostly for me, since I found a bunch of articles that I like and I want to have them all organized in one place.

From the New York Times come a couple of interesting Op-Ed pieces.

I found several other ones on Salon.com that piqued my interest as well.

I'd comment more on what I liked about each one, but I'm lazy and I have homework to do.

Don't read this if you don't like politics

2010-03-23T19:51:00.004-05:00

I don't really like to comment on political events, mostly because I don't feel like I have enough background information to say anything useful. However, the passage of the health-care bill has reminded me of one thing that I can take a real stance against: uninformed and inflammatory comments about politics. My facebook news feed is full of vitriolic statuses and links to illegitimate websites claiming to have some kind of information about Obama/the health-care bill/the US government that the mainstream media somehow failed to report (probably because of the liberal agenda of all news outlets or something).

What makes people believe this kind of stuff? I mean, I am all for political discussion, but claiming that America has suddenly become a Communo-fascist (I invented that word, I'm pretty sure) state is not accomplishing anything. First of all, that is impossible. Secondly, it's absolutely untrue. Plus, it doesn't change anything to make overly dramatic claims.

Why is there no room for moderate political discourse? I want to be able to understand the new legislation and how it will change things, but it seems that all of the voices out there are just yelling about nothing at all. When did politics become so extremely divided? Why don't people even try to learn from reputable sources rather than from some angry protester? Why are my well-educated friends so prone to believing blatant falsehoods? Who knows.

I did like this article, not just because the statistics included are funny/scary, but because of the point he makes about how all of this irrational arguing does not bode well for the future. I kind of want to read the author's book now, since he writes about how extremists on both sides of the political spectrum have taken control of political discourse. Sounds interesting.

Well, that was enough of a rant, I suppose. I'll just end with one point that I wish I could make to all Americans: Communism is not Socialism. Communism is not real Marxism. Communism is not even really about sharing the wealth. It's about having an elite group take over government in the name of the working class. No matter what you believe about fiscal policy, America is not Communist and never will be. That is all.

Moab!

2010-03-19T20:53:00.002-05:00

Alright, I'm going to finally get around to posting about my trip to Moab. In short, it was great. Perfect weather, perfect hikes, and perfect scenery. I also ate the best granola of my life (I can't write a blog post about anything without mentioning food). Here are some lovely pictures:

Near Double Arch:

At the beginning of the Fiery Furnace trail:
Along the Fiery Furnace trail:
The trail to Double Arch:
Double Arch, although it's way too big to capture in a picture:
And of course, Delicate Arch:

And a token one of me in front of the arch, looking totally awesome:

And me and some petroglyphs:

Some of these are repeats from my class photo blog, but that's only because they are the best.

I also would like to mention that I made the Best Banana Bread Ever yesterday. I will likely post the recipe in the future because it is just that good. I also made Thai curry for dinner tonight, and it was a success! Granted, I used a pre-made curry paste, but I was unsure whether or not it would recreate the flavor I was going for. It did! I recommend it. I really love food.

Banana Bread

2010-03-12T00:54:00.002-06:00

I went to Moab earlier this week, and I definitely plan to post pictures from that, but I don't have time right now because I'm "working on a paper."

Instead I'll just tell the world about my banana bread. I wanted to make this chocolate banana bread, but once I started making it, I realized that we didn't have enough flour. So I made a banana bread with twice the butter and bananas called for. I was really worried about it, but in the end, it just turned out like a really soft, crumbly banana bread. It's pretty tasty, if a little hard to eat. I'm proud of myself for being able to fix it at least a little.

I have to write a paper about socialism for tomorrow. Lame. It would be a lot easier if I could stop making treats and just focus.

Who am I kidding. That will never happen.

J'm faire la cuisine

2010-03-02T20:35:00.003-06:00

I've decided that I want to be a better cook and baker. I really enjoy cooking, and I just wish I had more time to improve my skills. I think I might start giving myself projects that will force me to learn new things. For instance, I'd like to try to make the best chocolate cake I can. I want to try several different recipes and find what works best for me. I'd also like to find new ways to cook vegetables, since I definitely don't eat enough.

Anyone have any brilliant ideas for culinary challenges I can tackle?

If I come up with anything of interest, I'll post it here. Who knows, I might even take the time to photograph my endeavors.

In other news, my wonderful friend from home is coming to visit me this weekend! I'm a little stressed about finding things to do while she's here, but it's also super exciting! I love exclamation points! Here's the (rough) game plan:

- SLC (temple square, drive around by the U, go shopping somewhere cool, etc.)

- Skiing (potentially at Park City?)

- Group date (the ultimate awkward Provo experience)

- Attending a student ward

- Ward Prayer (aka Ward Stare)

- Moab/Arches National Park (I haven't been in forever, so I'm pretty excited!)

I hope she finds Utah sufficiently interesting to warrant spending her Spring Break here. I know I love it here, but its certainly taken me a while to fully appreciate it. Life is just different in the bubble :)

Eggs and Rice

2010-03-01T16:54:00.002-06:00

I invented a good meal a little while ago, and I just thought I'd share it with the internet.

I call it...

Eggs and Rice!

Ok, so it sounds a lot grosser than it is. I'm normally not a huge fan of fried eggs, but this is hands down the best way to eat them. Just trust me. It's based on a Korean dish called bibimbap, but I'm sure it's not at all the same.

Step 1. Cook some rice. I like jasmine rice personally.

Step 2. Chop up some vegetables. I like broccoli, carrots, peas, or whatever I have lying around. If you want to, you can throw these in the pan with the rice during the last 5-10 minutes of cooking and they'll steam up nicely on top of the rice :)

Step 3. Fry an egg or two.

Step 4. Mix the rice and vegetables together and put the fried eggs on top. Then cut them into pieces with your chopsticks/fork so that the yolks run all over the rice. Add soy sauce and hot chili sauce to taste (this part is important - it's not very good without the salty and spicy flavors).

That's it! It's fast, easy, and it uses ingredients I always have on hand. Plus, there's something fun about mixing your food up with chopsticks, I think.

Here's a picture (that I did not take) of what your finished dish could potentially look like!

Class photo blog

2010-03-01T00:42:00.001-06:00

I just posted my photo essay for my class if you're interested. I like it a lot better than my last one!

http://valuesphotography.blogspot.com/2010/02/lucies-fashion-rules.html

Links part deux

2010-02-27T13:39:00.003-06:00

I never know what to write in my blog. I love reading other people's blogs, but it seems like all I ever do here is write about boring little things that happen to me. Currently, I have dozens of tabs open in Chrome (my browser of choice) with little articles and things that I find interesting. I was considering posting them on facebook, but there are too many. Then I remembered that I have a blog! I can post as many links as I want, because if you're reading this post it's because you want to hear what I have to say, whereas on facebook I would be unnecessarily spamming your news feed with my silly links.

Here we go. First of all, I found this poll really interesting. The parts about the tea party movement are interesting because it seems that the members of that "movement" consider themselves to be representative of the feelings of the majority of Americans, which is not entirely true. I will be interested to see how the Republican Party responds to the tea partiers, since they make up a significant part of the Party, but they also alienate more moderate voters. I think the fact that they approved most of Glen Beck and Sarah Palin is very telling of what demographic this involves. Also, 21% of Americans think that Obama was not born in the US? 85% of tea partiers think that he's a socialist? 20% of tea partiers want their state to secede from the Union? America is a crazy place.

This chart is cool, too. It's nice to have a neat little graphic that shows how America spends more than double the OECD average on healthcare and still has a lower life expectancy than average. Something isn't quite right about that, even if I have no opinions about how to best fix it.

Also, this article has some interesting ideas about media and what is and isn't appropriate for an LDS audience. Some people may not like everything he has to say, but I agree with most of it.

I think those are all the things I want to share. Hopefully someone finds something interesting from this blog post!

You don't have to read this. Really.

2010-02-05T00:51:00.003-06:00

Why do I always leave papers until the last minute? It's like I have some masochistic compulsion to avoid homework until it becomes absolutely impossible to put it off anymore. It certainly doesn't make doing it any easier. Oh well! I've learned to work well under pressure, and churning out this 5 page paper shouldn't take me all that long.

I've been cooking so much lately! I made mulligatawny, chocolate meringues, and a pasta/cheese casserole thing in the last few days. Everything turned out delicious! I wish I had more time and money so that I could just cook all the time. Then I would get to eat yummy food all the time. That would be great.

You know what else would be great? Being done with this paper. I've got like one page written. OK, two now. But I'm still really good at distracting myself.

I've finally finished my (pretty lame) paper and now I'm off to bed. It's a good thing I have a blog to write in to help distract me from the monotony of paper-writing.

Banoffee Pie

2010-02-01T23:48:00.004-06:00

I made a Banoffee Pie the other day. For those of you who don't know what that is, you can refer to this. It was delicious! It was honestly one of the best desserts I've ever made. It tasted about like this:

It could have definitely been prettier, but it's pretty hard to work with caramel, banana slices, and whipped cream. It looked more like this:

It was definitely a hit with my roommates, and I can't wait to make it again, although the idea is a bit daunting since it is kind of a high-maintenance pie. Like this:

I give it three Beethovens overall.

Grapefruit Cake Review

2010-01-30T23:15:00.006-06:00

So this week I made a pink grapefruit cake, as I mentioned in a previous post. Here is a picture of the cake:
I would say that it turned out about as attractive as Bjork.

I think that it tasted like Jean Gabin, pointing at you and singling you out.

Overall, I rate this cake three Swiss Alps.

Here's the recipe in binary, in case you decide to make this cake at home.

01110010011001010110001101101

0010111000001100101001000000110011

0011100100110111101101101001000000

11010100110111101111001011101000110

100001100101011000100110000101101011

01100101011100100010111001100011011011

1101101101000011010000101000001101000010

100000110100001010000011010000101001101101

01100001011010110110010101110011001000000110

11110110111001100101001000000011000100110000001

011010110100101101110011000110110100000100000

0110001101100001011010110110010100101100001000

000110000101100010011011110111010101110100

00100000001100010011001000100000011100

11011001010111001001110110011010010

11011100110011101110011000011010000

10100000110100001010010101000110100

test post for photo class

2010-01-30T17:42:00.005-06:00

Our class photo blog can be found at valuesphotography.blogspot.com. The final version of my photo essay appears there.

Stress --> Baking

2010-01-25T21:01:00.003-06:00

I've been busy lately. Not with schoolwork, like I usually am, but with thinking. I've got a lot to think about right now. Should I really graduate in August, or should I try to drag out my undergraduate education for another semester or so? If I graduate, then what should I do with my life? I want to go to grad school eventually, but what should I study? I keep hoping that some answers will appear, but so far I've had no luck. I'm still crossing my fingers and listening to people's suggestions. Hopefully I'll be able to find something useful and interesting to do.

I've been cooking a lot lately, which is a good indicator that I'm stressed. Tonight, for instance, I roasted some Brussels sprouts with browned butter. They were so good! I then made a pink grapefruit yogurt cake, which is good but kind of weird. I had to use my grapefruit and my yogurt, though, so it was a good choice. The cake is super moist, but the tartness starts to get annoying after more than a slice or so.

My roommates are watching "The Bachelor," which sounds like the world's most irritating television show. I'm so glad that I'm not a crazy, hormonal brat.

Break

2009-12-30T16:01:00.002-06:00

Winter break is drawing to a close. It's so good to be home, but it will also be nice to go back to school. Home = better shopping, better food, and family. School = more friends, more structure, less cold. I still need to visit a few of my favorite restaurants and spend more time with my family and friends here, but I'll be excited to get back to my everyday routine and my friends out West.

So what have I done with my break so far? Not a whole lot. I have been out to eat way too much. I went to the Mexican place (twice), two different breakfast places, a barbecue place, Corner Bakery, and an amazing Japanese restaurant. I'm still planning to visit my favorite burger place and get either Thai or Moroccan food before I leave. I love the restaurants here!

In addition to that, we've also had fantastic snacks at home. My Dad brought home speculoos cookies and speculoos spread from Belgium. The spread is amazing! I wish I could always have some on hand. It's like peanut butter made from spice cookies, and it's just one more reason why I would love to live in Belgium.

I've seen a few high school friends, and it's been really nice. It's unbelievable how fast college has flown by! People from high school are getting married, having babies, graduating and getting real jobs, etc. I can't believe how fast time flies!

I don't feel ready to graduate, which certainly made registering for classes hard. I finally got a schedule I'm happy with today! I'm quite relieved considering that classes start on Monday.

What else have I done? A bit of shopping, since there are lots of good sales after Christmas. I didn't get anything particularly remarkable for Christmas, but I did get lots of candy and some fantastic Hello Kitty pants.

Want to hear a song I like lately? Here it is:

Je suis litt stressað

2009-12-03T18:08:00.003-06:00

5 more days of classes! I'm excited, nervous, and sad about that, all at the same time. I'm excited to be done with the semester because that means I get to go home and enjoy Christmas time. I'm nervous that classes are ending because that means that I really have to start worrying about doing everything that I have to get done before the end of the semester. I'm sad that classes are ending because I like my classes, and it's always kind of sad to me to think that I'm done learning about whatever it is my class is about!

I'm also a bit nervous about the grades for my Internship classes. I sort of forgot to turn in one of the papers, and now it's over two months late. I promise it's not as bad as it sounds. You see, I turned in two of my three papers on time (which is remarkable because most interns were like a month late), but the last one still had to go to the writing lab, so my professor said that I could turn it in two weeks later, once he was back from a trip. He also said he'd email me to tell me when a good time would be to turn it in. I went to the writing lab the very next day and had it all ready, but I never heard from him!

This afternoon, I got a Facebook message from the girl who is in charge of the French Internships (kind of weird, right?) telling me that the professor has been trying to contact me and that I need to turn the paper in by tomorrow or else I'll get a failing grade. Needless to say, I started freaking out. I immediately emailed him the paper, and I'll go drop off a copy tomorrow and hope he's there. I feel terrible that I did't remember to turn it in sooner!

Also, I have no idea how he couldn't get a hold of me! I've gotten emails from him before, and he's also called me when he's really needed something. I even checked my spam folders to make sure I hadn't missed anything, and I really don't think I ever got an email from him! I really hope he'll be understanding and that I won't fail. That would be the worst!

I really don't want to do any real homework tonight, but I kind of need to. Next week is going to be crazy, and I wish I were better at doing a little bit of work every day rather than waiting until the last minute. That would make things so much easier! But I've never been able to write papers any sooner than a few hours before they're due. It sure goes faster that way!

Maybe I'll go to In-N-Out for dinner. I've already been four times. It's kind of disgusting/pathetic how often I eat there. I don't know what it is, but I've been craving hamburgers all semester. Maybe it's because I don't eat enough protein. In the past, I've been really good about cooking healthy food for myself, but this semester I mostly just eat random snacks and mashed potatoes. With a diet like that, a girl is bound to crave meat sometimes, I guess?

One final random thought: Amazon has tons of free MP3s, and they actually have quite a bit of decent Christmas music. It's worth checking out. I also downloaded a "Turkish Hits" CD that I'm pretty excited about. I have such strange interests.

Last two weeks of classes!

2009-12-02T01:53:00.002-06:00

The end of the semester is quickly approaching.

This means that lots and lots of papers need to be written.

Too bad I have no motivation left at all.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Jingle Bass

2009-11-26T22:08:00.002-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I've had a pretty wonderful day myself. I got to sleep in, hang out with my brother, shower (yes!), and spend the rest of the day eating and being with family and friends. I love having my brother in town. I miss seeing him all the time! We also had my BFF over with her siblings for dinner tonight, and it was cool to have them all here. They're a lot of fun.

Last night, we went up to my other grandparents and had a big dinner, so I now feel like the biggest fatty in the world. Seriously, who has two Thanksgiving dinners? On top of that, I ate four cheeseburgers in three days last weekend. Gross! I can't even believe that I allowed myself to do that. Curse In-N-Out and their delicious onions (that's my favorite part of the burger!).

It's been really weird having time off of school and yet having no one around. I keep thinking I should do something fun, but then I remember that the only people I know who are still in town are my brother and like two other friends. Also, today really feels like a Sunday. I wish that everyone stayed in town for Thanksgiving so that it would be like a crazy weekend of fun rather than lazy days where you don't do anything because you don't know what to do if you don't have any friends. I should be doing homework since the next few weeks are going to be crazy, but I feel like I can't because I have to entertain my dear brother.

In the spirit of the season, I'm going to make a list of things I'm grateful for:
- Family
- Friends
- Good food
- Religion, specifically my own
- the Internet
- Cars
- Education
- the ability to learn languages
- Sleep

I could go on forever, but I'm sure no one cares about all of the things I like in the world.

To end this rather introspective post with a bang, I think that this video is a great way to mark the beginning of the Christmas season. (Wait for him to get to "Jingle Bells" please)

How much better does it get than a Swedish guy singing a techno cover of Jingle Bells?

Ferie

2009-11-24T03:00:00.004-06:00

I can't believe I'm still awake. I have class in like 7 hours, and yet I'm just wasting time on the internet. I think it's my way of celebrating Thanksgiving break early. I mean, my roommates are all leaving me here, so we have to spend time together before then, right? Lacey and I set up our Christmas tree and I baked cookies earlier tonight when the two roommates left here were out with boys. It was fun! I haven't baked in a while, and I miss it. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do some more cooking over the next few days :)

My brother comes into town tomorrow! I'm so excited to see him. I miss him, and it's pretty cool that he lives a lot closer to me this year. I wonder what we're going to do while he's here, since pretty much everyone will be out of town. I'm not particularly worried, especially since he and I can amuse ourselves doing pretty much anything, but I hope he doesn't think it's always this boring around here.

I cannot believe how little time we have left in the semester. I'm getting stressed about final papers and projects and stuff. Being a senior is kind of a lot of work, I'm discovering.

One last thing. This reminded me of this. Coincidence?

links!

2009-11-11T17:45:00.002-06:00

Because I can't focus on the papers I need to be writing like RIGHT NOW I'm writing a blog post instead. Since there's not much going on in my life worth reporting on, I'm going to link to weird/cool/interesting things I've found on the internet recently.

You can submit a sample of ANYTHING here and get a picture of it under an electron microscope! Isn't that neat? I'm trying to think of something cool to send in...

This article is interesting to me because I love learning about the EU, and it's not often that the US even comments on its existence.

Does this sound like me? I'm not sure that all of it does, but I like this part: "Many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a relationship)... [Also], INTJs really want people to make sense."

Here's a video of this French boy with the most amazing voice! I can't get over it. He sounds like a little angel.

I like this band, too.

I can't think of anything else to add to this list, but I really am good at wasting time online. Hopefully now I'll be able to focus on my writing for at least a little while...

Guess what? Only four weeks left in the semester. I'm not sure if I should be excited or terrified!

2009-11-06T11:51:00.001-06:00

Guess what? I can update my Blog via text message. Right now, i'm sitting on the grass by the library waiting for my next class to start.

Last night I made boeuf bourguignon, but then I burned it. I blame the pan. I think it let all the steam out and then it got all dried out before it even had the chance to cook. Now our apartment smells awful and everything in it has an acrid, burning smell. It's so gross! People are probably going to think we're smokers.

I get to see my brother tonight and I can't wait. I love my family. Also, we're probably going to chipotle and i'm very excited! I really hope this entry actually works. Technology is cool, guys.

status

2009-10-09T17:56:00.003-05:00

I always feel weird updating my facebook status. I don't think that people will be interested in what I'm doing or what I'm thinking. I guess that's why I have a blog, because here my readers at least choose to read about my life rather than having me thrust that information upon them via their News Feeds. But if I did update my status more frequently, what would I say?

Today:
- I went to class, and learned about the economic situation of Europe in the 10th century.
- I made pasta for lunch and accidentally dumped it all down the drain as I was trying to strain the water off :(
- I'm really craving mashed potatoes
- I'm sitting in my bed, looking at clothes on sale at J. Crew online
- I bought some clothes. I broke my nearly year-long hiatus from buying clothes for myself!
- I'm going to dinner with Bethany and then to a friend's party for a bit.
- I need to shower, but my roommate already is!
- Pandora is great, especially the Sigur Ros station
- The Avett Brothers are a pretty good band, if you like bluegrass-influenced music
- I'm so glad my internship papers are done! I'm so not doing homework this weekend.
- FREE BREAKFAST AT IKEA TOMORROW
- I'm getting my hair done tomorrow, which will be the highlight of my week, easily.
- Should I get the red/purple lowlights again? Or stick with the blonde?

As you can see, I have way too many random thoughts. Since I can't pick one that is inherently more interesting than the others, I choose to not tell people about any of them. Hence, my blog.

Skal vi gå?

2009-10-05T00:42:00.002-05:00

Tonight was the first night in ages (i.e. in like two weeks) that I haven't been busy. I turned in most of my internship papers on Thursday, and all I have to do now is edit the last one sometime in the next week or two. I'm so relieved! Now I can focus on this semester's work rather than summer stuff.

My Dad and brother were in town this weekend, and it was so good to see them! I miss them a lot. We didn't do a whole lot together since it was conference weekend and everything, but I did get to go to the football game with my brother and dinner with my Dad and his mission companions and their kids. That was cool, especially since they're from Australia and New Zealand. I seriously haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

Now everyone is gone, and so it's back to life as usual for me. Now that I'm going to actually have a little free time, I might finish moving into my room. I also bought half a bushel of peaches (it's the end of the season - I had to!) and am planning to make peach pie/cobbler/etc. this week. I watched an episode of "Glee" tonight, and it felt so nice to not be doing homework.

Maybe one of these days I'll have something more interesting to write about than my day-to-day life.

teenagers

2009-09-28T23:53:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to do my reading journal for my Euro Fascisms class, but I'm really distracted by my roommates. We're having a great time, but it's nearly 11pm and I still have like 6 more pages to write for this assignment in addition to the work I have to do on my internship papers. Unfortunately, it's really time to buckle down and work on those since they're kind of due Thursday. I also need to shower tonight, since I don't want to be gross tomorrow.

All of my roommates are going on dates on Wednesday. Weird coincidence, right? It's hilarious listening to them as they've been setting them all up and stuff. I like the fact that they're going on dates, since we didn't really go on many last year. It makes life more interesting!

My Dad comes into town this weekend! I'm pretty excited. I get to see him and my brother! I can't wait until after Thursday, when my papers are done and my family is here. That will be so much better than this week has been so far.

<3

Saturday!

2009-09-26T13:53:00.002-05:00

I'm so glad that I don't have to go to school today. I still have to do tons of work, but at least I don't have class! Yesterday, I managed to get a little done with my Lyon paper, which is good. Today, I just have to do my RS lesson, some homework, and then work on those silly papers.

Last night, for a break from studying, I went and got gelato with Bethany and her roommate. It was super yummy. We then wandered along Center Street and ran into some kind of sketchy people. Someone called us "three little LDS girls" as we walked along the street, but I thought that was dumb because we live in Utah and the population is like 80% LDS. I mean, it's more likely that we'd be LDS than female as citizens of Utah county, statistically speaking. People are weird.

When we got home, there was a random dance party in our complex's courtyard. We stayed around and danced for a bit, but it was kind of lame. We had fun anyway, since we like to dance.

I have more work to do than I can possibly get done today, but I still want to do something fun tonight. I can't wait until these papers are turned in so that I only have to worry about this semester's work!

Jeg har ikke lyst å studere

2009-09-24T19:24:00.003-05:00

I have the weirdest cravings. As I was trying to think of something to eat for dinner, I simultaneously craved chicken (which is weird since I almost never eat meat), black beans, sweet potatoes, and oranges. I didn't want to eat any of those things alone, though, since that would be kind of strange.

Instead, I mixed the chicken and black beans with some leftover salsa and spices to make a kind of taco filling thing. Unfortunately, I accidentally dumped almost half a container of crushed red pepper in, so it's now almost unbearably spicy. Good thing I like spicy stuff, right?

Then I mashed up a sweet potato with butter and a little bit of orange juice, as the "Joy of Cooking" told me to. It was surprisingly good, and it reminded me of Christmas for some reason. I have no idea why, since I only decided a few weeks ago that I even like sweet potatoes. I think that I still prefer them with only butter, though. It balances out the sweetness better.

So for dinner I ate my sweet potatoes and taco stuff with tortilla chips. It was quite satisfying, but definitely a weird meal.

Why do I get such weird cravings? Is it because my body needs some nutrient and is crying out for it? Is a Vitamin A deficiency at the root of my weeks-long obsession with the sweet potato? Or am I just crazy/indecisive?

In other news, I finished my Norwegian test in like 20 minutes today. I think I did pretty well. That's a good omen for the first test of the semester! Now I'm going to make a quick list of the most important things for me to do this weekend:
- paper about Lyon (7 pgs, French)
- paper about Obama's foreign policy (12 pgs, French)
- reading journal (8 pgs)
- RS lesson (30 mins?)
- other homework (4 pgs)

That's a ton! I think it's certainly doable, but I am the World's Laziest Student, which makes it a whole lot harder. However, I only have one class tomorrow, so I should have plenty of time to work on it. I'm also hoping to get some done ce soir. On verra. Ha en fin kveld! Ég skal skrifa á eftir í morgun.

(That is how my brain works all the time, by the way.)

8 hours

2009-09-23T22:42:00.002-05:00

I just saw a statistic on economist.com (a reliable source, I'm pretty sure) that says that Americans watch 8 hours of TV per day, on average.

Is this really possible? There are certainly people who, like me, rarely watch television. Does that mean that some people watch 16 hours of TV per day? Do people not have jobs or school or anything else to take up their time? I'm disappointed in America if all we have time to do is watch TV.

I'm nearly done with 1 out of 3 papers for my internship. Yay! If I finish it tonight and manage to keep on track for the next week or so, I think I'll be able to finish without too much difficulty. However, keeping myself on track may prove hard to do after a few days of intense paper-writing.

I have to teach Relief Society on Sunday. Any brilliant lesson ideas? I can teach on whatever I want, but I'm not sure what I want to do.

Strawberries & Cream

2009-09-22T17:21:00.002-05:00

Well, I've finally finished one whole paragraph of one of my internship papers. I'm just counting on the fact that I work well under pressure, because if that weren't true, then there would be no way I'd ever get this done. I have to write in my blog because otherwise I will want to do it all afternoon and I won't get anything done.

I just ate some strawberries and fresh whipped cream, and it was amazing. I'm trying not to feel bad about eating that much heavy cream, so I'm reminding myself that I only believe in eating full-fat dairy products. My new theory is that fat doesn't cause heart disease. Trans fats and a lack of a balanced diet do. Also, I think that if we eat reduced-fat foods, then we won't be as satisfied and we'll end up eating more anyway. So I eat what I want to, but in moderation.

This means that I cook with a lot of butter and cream, but so what? Margarine is only a polymer away from being a plastic, and I seriously doubt that it's healthier for me than good, old-fashioned butter. Plus, margarine and shortening have no flavor, which I think defeats the purpose of eating fats. So if you ever eat something I've cooked, rest assured that it will be free of trans fats and artificial ingredients.

Now that I've gone off on that random tangent, it's probably time for me to return to my paper. Wish me luck!

Long Long Long Day

2009-09-17T00:09:00.003-05:00

Wednesdays are so long.

I had class at 9, then I attempted to do some homework for an hour, although Blackboard was down so I just bought some oatmeal instead. I then had class for the next 3.5 hours. After that, I chatted with a friend until 3, when I went to a little fondue party for French-speakers. It was kind of weird since I didn't really know anyone there, but I went anyway because I had nothing better to do and I'll never turn down free fruit and chocolate. After that, I went to the Icelandic class, but it was kind of boring because I already know how to conjugate simple verbs and pronounce things. I didn't mind; it was an excuse to get in an Icelandic mindset for a little while. I then ran home, had a snack, grabbed my cello, and went back up to campus for Orchestra. I enjoyed playing, but I hate having class for 2 full hours that late at night.

So finally I came home, and now I'm sitting here eating some yogurt and wasting time as I wonder how I'm going to get everything done that I need to get done this month. I have way too much going on, and I kind of don't know how to deal with it. I'm never this busy!

Today I attended 3 different foreign language classes. It's the weirdest feeling when you really get in the mindset of a language and you can totally express yourself in it. It's an even weirder feeling when you have four languages running through your head at once and you can't communicate in any of them. It's really stressful and difficult, but at the same time it's cool because your brain is working so hard and it's somehow refreshing or something. I can't really put it into words. All I know is that I love knowing so many languages, but it's apparently stressing out my brain because I keep having dreams where I can't communicate with people because they don't speak any of my languages. Weird, right?

Tomorrow is going to be a lovely day with very little scheduled. Only two classes and piles of homework/RS responsibilities. I'm excited! Oh, and I have a frozen yogurt date with Lacey :)

Peaches

2009-09-15T21:12:00.002-05:00

I'm waiting for my peach galette to cook, and I'm avoiding writing the (very short) paper I have to write for Norwegian, so here I am, writing in my blog.

This morning, I went to class, and learned that the Prophet and President of the Church, Thomas S. Monson, would be speaking at the devotional. How did I not hear about this? I must seriously be out of the loop to miss the fact that the Prophet was coming to campus. Luckily, I didn't have class the hour before, so I called a friend and we went to the Marriott Center together. It was so worth it! I love being in the room when General Authorities speak. It's just the most beautiful feeling. His talk was about his relationships with previous Church Presidents, and I really liked hearing little personal details about them. It made them seem more real, even though they died before I was born. I love stuff like that :)

After the devotional, I met up with my friend Nicole, who is leaving on a mission tomorrow! It was weird to think about that. We also went out to dinner tonight, which was a lot of fun. I'm going to miss her so much! At least she isn't going too far, and I can still write her. I'm kind of hoping I'll run across her at Temple Square sometime, too...

My peach galette turned out quite yummy, and we had some friends over to eat it with us. I love doing that! I love baking, and I love sharing it with people. I just feel weird inviting people over to eat treats all the time.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day. Wednesdays are like that.

Lazy Saturday

2009-09-12T20:04:00.003-05:00

So now that school is back in session and I've (supposedly) settled in for my senior year, I should probably start updating again. I know that my internet readership is just dying to hear from me, so here goes.

My classes are still going well, although I'd be much happier with my school schedule if I weren't worried about finishing up the papers for my internship. I started today with the intention of churning out a couple of those, but instead I ended up wasting away the whole day and I have plans this evening. Oh well! I guess there's always next weekend...

Last night, I ended up having the apartment to myself, so I amused myself by watching "Glee" online and making a quiche for dinner. I had sweet potatoes, quiche, and chocolate ice cream with raspberries for my little French-inspired meal. It was great! After that, I played my cello until my roommates invited me to hang out with them at a guys' apartment. We watched "The Dark Knight" and I ended up staying up too late. I hate that.

One annoying thing about being back in Provo is that there is always this weird feeling that if you aren't dating a lot, there must be something wrong with you. I've only been here a few weeks, but I'm already starting to feel the pressure! I talked with Lacey today about this, and we talked about how different girls (and probably guys too) have different reactions to this feeling. Some girls we know assume that they must be too outgoing or too shy, some think that they're too stupid, and some think that they must not be pretty enough. I have a really hard time with some of these feelings, but I'll refrain from whining too much about my personal insecurities over the internet :)

It's frustrating to feel like you're inadequate all the time. It's especially hard when you don't date a lot (or at all) like me. I'm trying my best to be outgoing, friendly, and open to meeting new people this year, because I feel like I'm old enough that I should probably have some real dating experiences at some point. But at some point, there isn't a whole lot I can do. I guess we'll see what this year brings?

On a less serious and whiny note, can I just mention how much I love certain things about being back in the States? I love Target and Costco and having a car to get there. I love veggie burgers and Bombay House. I love being back in my native culture (although I guess Utah can be kind of foreign to me at times). As much as I enjoyed my time in France, I'm not ready to go back anytime soon.

Back in school

2009-09-09T19:19:00.005-05:00

Well, it's been a while. School has started, and I'm unbelievably busy for only having had a week of classes. I still have all of my internship papers to write, and I've already had real assignments in classes! To top it off, I'm in the Relief Society Presidency, so I have stuff to do for that, too. For instance, tonight I'm going to go meet the girls and then make VT assignments. Tomorrow, I'm going to the MTC to be a fake investigator for the Icelandic-speaking Elders. I went last week, too, and it was tons of fun! I love Icelandic. It's a gorgeous language! It's too bad that there are no more classes for me to take in it.

I do like all of my classes this semester. I think that some will be harder/more interesting than others, but I think I'll make it. Norwegian is great! I like learning languages a lot. Plus, it's a pretty simple language, especially when you already have studied Icelandic.

One of the best things about being back in Utah is that it's peach season! I bought some delicious peaches at the fruit stand, and I've been eating fresh peaches and cream for a few days :) The worst thing about Utah? The heat. I hate walking to class and being ridiculously sweaty from having to haul myself up the hill to campus in 90 degree heat. I can't wait for Fall weather!

Happy 9.9.09 everyone!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-08-24T23:12:00.002-05:00

It's once again my birthday! I'm now 21, which is not all that exciting considering that I won't be buying any alcohol like nearly every other American 21-year-old on my birthday. I do, however, have to renew my drivers' license, and I'm now old enough that no one will deny me entrance to any concerts, even if alcohol is being served! I must really be growing up.

To celebrate, I had a picnic lunch with my Dad at his office, got my nails done, and went to dinner with my family. It was a pretty ordinary day, but nice. The weather was great, too.

I wish I would have had a cake, but it wasn't a big deal. My family gave me an old record player from the school's garage sale, which was pretty awesome, but I have no way of taking it with me to Utah. I want to, though. It would make a great addition to any room!

I can't believe I go back to school so soon. My birthday always reminds me that school is just around the corner. It also reminds me that I'm getting older faster than I'd like, and that I ought to be doing more with my life. Birthdays are weird, I think.

I'm feeling the Illinoise

2009-08-19T12:32:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm back! I'm so glad to be home, too. It's been amazing to see my family and friends again, and life is just so much easier here! I don't have to take public transit, my house isn't uncomfortably hot, and I have a real oven and stove.

It's actually not that weird to be home again. I've already had two weeks of traveling where I spoke English, so the language adjustment has already passed. It was pretty strange, though. I had to focus so hard to speak English when I was in London. Now that I'm home, there are little things that seem weird, like being able to plug things straight into the wall and not into an adapter. Also, I have to get used to prices being in dollars again. I keep thinking that things are more expensive than they really are, and I'm not used to adding tax or a tip onto my purchases. I think that Americans should adopt the everything-is-included pricing like in Europe.

It's so great to be back in familiar territory, but there are a few things that I miss already:
- the chocolate (at least from countries other than France)
- Labello chap stick
- fromage frais
- good yogurt
- good butter
- pastries
- the ice cream!
- having people to speak French with
Obviously, dairy products seem to rank high on my list of good things about France. Even when I was in France, I had people point out that I ate a lot of dairy. I told them that it was only because the dairy is (comparatively) terrible in the US. Why is American dairy so lame? My theory is that we are scared of fat so everything is low-fat and therefore flavorless. Clearly it isn't working. Actually, pretty much everything good in France has a lot of fat in it. I think we should adopt full-fat foods along with including tax in prices, OK?

Since I've been home, I've been enjoying spending time with my family a lot. I was really sad, though, because my brother left for college less than 24 hours after I got home! Luckily, he'll be in Utah, too, so I can go visit him every once in a while. I hope he's getting settled and everything. My sister is also intensely excited that I'm here, and she constantly wants to be hugging or chasing me. It's adorable but exhausting.

Oh, one more great thing about being home? My hair straightener works! I've had to wear my hair all natural and curly for the whole summer, which is extra lame because the haircut I got just before leaving only looked good straight. I felt like I was never quite ready for the day because I couldn't do my hair. It's silly, I know, but it's so nice to finally be back to normal.

USA USA USA

2009-08-14T16:38:00.003-05:00

Well, my voyage home is about to begin. I'll be leaving Germany in the morning, and then making a long and complicated 5-city journey, eventually ending up back in my homeland. Then I get to leave a week later to go back to school. Don't worry, much of my trip is by train, and apparently some of those trips are carbon-neutral. I'm working to reduce my impact on the planet when it doesn't inconvenience me in any way.

I can't believe that I'm really headed back. I'm so excited! That is, if I can survive the flight. I get so nervous, and I hate it.

Today I attended a Hello Kitty birthday party. I think that I may copy the theme for my own birthday, which is coming up extremely soon.

Next time I update, I'll be back on American soil.

Allemagne

2009-08-12T16:07:00.003-05:00

I'm in Germany now, and it's so nice here. It's calm, there are no creepers around, and it's not too hot. Also, all of this switching languages has really been messing with my brain, so I can no longer speak English. I apologize for the fact that my posts lack logic and might have some less-than-perfect grammar in them. It's the weirdest thing, but I honestly can't speak any language these days.

I'm getting more and more excited to go home. Even though it's hard to imagine leaving Europe indefinitely, I'm just ready. 10 weeks is a long, long time. Plus, France is still so foreign to me, and I'll be excited to just be back in my own culture where everything makes sense. And is cheaper. I'm going to be pretty poor in the fall.

Today I bought a lot of candy. German candy is way better and cheaper than French candy, so I'm totally going back to the store to buy a bunch more. If you have any requests, let me know and I'll bring you some home.

London and Paris

2009-08-10T03:54:00.002-05:00

Well, having been away from computers for a while, I haven't had the chance to post about my trips. In London, I got to see the Tower of London, the Tate Modern, the British Museum (Elgin Marbles!), the Globe, and some other things I can't think of right now. I felt so weird being back in an English-speaking country! When I got off the plane, I really had to concentrate so that I wouldn't start speaking French to everyone. I love London, though. I think it's just so cool there. I'll be sure to post some pictures and write more about it later.

In Paris, we actually got to see all of the highlights, even though I was worried that we would run out of time. We saw the Arc de Triomphe, Concorde, Notre Dame, the Sainte Chappelle, Montmartre, Versailles, and of course, the Eiffel Tower. We even got to see it light up at night, which is pretty awesome-looking. We also had a picnic by the Seine on some sand that they had brought in for this Paris Plage thing that they do every summer. I was, however, disappointed in the pastries that we've had in Paris. Too bad.

Right now, I'm sitting in my hostel lobby writing this while I bide my time before heading to the train station to catch my train to Frankfurt. I'm sad to leave Paris, since I know that this is really my last morning in France. Crazy! I'm pretty excited for Germany since I have no memory of it and yet I've heard all about it my whole life. I'm also a little nervous since I've never been to a country where I don't speak the language before. I figure I'll be alright, though, since Germans all seem to speak at least a little English and I'll be with Germans the whole time.

Typing this on a French keyboard is super strange. I keep mixing up the a's, w's, and m's. The apostrophe and the period are complicated, too. The whole time I've been here I've been using my laptop, so I haven't had to adjust until now.

I'm not excited to go sit in the train station all afternoon. I have all my bags and I've just checked out of the hostel, so I have to carry them everywhere with me. I also know that the line to get my ticket will probably be crazy long, so I get to stand for like an hour too. Yay!

Sorry that my entry about my exciting trips isn't more exciting, but I'm a little sleepy. One thing I've done a whole lot of this trip is walk, especially up stairs. I figure that the campus stairs should be no big deal after this summer.

I promise to write more soon!

Sunday

2009-08-02T11:44:00.005-05:00

Well, it's officially August, and I'll be home 2 weeks from right now. I'm ready, I think. I'm sure I'll feel differently after going on my trips (which should be super fun!), but for now, it just feels like it's time to leave. Don't get me wrong, I've had a great experience here, especially for the last few weeks, but it just feels like it's over. All of my friends are gone, so it's time for me to move on, too.

Friday night with Janina was so fun. We just chatted and made dinner and stuff, and I was so sad to have to say goodbye. I like her a lot! I'm going to miss everyone I've met here so much when I get home.

Yesterday was remarkably unproductive. I spent most of the day napping, and then I ran some errands just to get out of the house. I also started watching "Heima" because it's the best movie ever, and then I couldn't stop. I eventually got a little bit of housework done, but not enough...

Today was my last day of church, which was also sad. One of the Elders who is going home this week bore his testimony, and it was weird to think that all of the boys my age are going to be back from their missions in the fall. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I was also sad to say goodbye to the Sisters, because they've been so nice to me this whole time. I feel like we're actually friends, even though I know that we're never going to see each other again. They were great moral support for me, especially for the first few weeks here.

On the bus coming home from church, the same creepy guy who followed me and my Dad home a few weeks ago sat next to me on the bus. I was terrified. He reeked of marijuana, and he sat uncomfortably close to me and kept rubbing his legs and laughing inexplicably. He was clearly heavily under the influence. He couldn't even sit up straight. To make it worse, he just stared right at me. After a few stops, I was so uncomfortable that I got up and went to stand in the front of the bus. He kept staring at me! His eyes were huge and he wasn't even blinking. Every time I would glance back at his reflection in the window, he was still staring. I was thoroughly creeped out. In order to keep him from following me home, I decided to get off a stop early. I waited and acted like I wasn't getting off, but then I just darted out of the door at the last minute. Thankfully, his altered state of mind prevented him from acting quickly enough to get off there.

I feel like there are more creepy guys who talk to me now than there have ever been on my trip. It's getting to the point where I dread leaving the house because I'm almost sure that someone's going to proposition me. It's hard to explain why it's so annoying and scary, but it makes me feel dirty and really vulnerable. That is something I will definitely not miss when I go back to school where everyone is nice and no boys ever talk to me.

On a lighter note, my trips are all booked, and I'm so ready to go. I'm particularly excited about the train trips. I love trains! I'm also really excited about going to the UK because they speak English and I can't wait to see what Germany is like! I'll be sure to blog about it sometime :)

Last Day at the MDE

2009-07-31T06:54:00.002-05:00

It's my last day! I'm really excited about that. I don't care about my dossier anymore. If there are problems with it, oh well! I won't be here to hear about it. The day started off with some not-so-fun confrontations with my boss, and then we had one last useless meeting. I would be pretty unhappy with him right now if I weren't leaving. But I am! So everything is fine :)

I forgot my wallet today, so I didn't have any lunch money. Luckily, I had a banana in my bag and some yogurt in the fridge here that I didn't eat yesterday. There was also some cake in there, so I just ate that for lunch. To top it all off, we have lots of cookies in celebration of those who are leaving and I've been eating those all morning. So, I may or may not be on a sugar high right now.

I'm going to visit Janina tonight, and I'm glad. I would have been sad if I didn't get to see her again, and this way we can exchange pictures and stuff.

This weekend is going to be filled with planning and packing. I've got to move out of my apartment before I leave, which means that I have to clean and everything. Even though I'd rather be traveling this weekend, having some time to get everything in order will be nice.

Can you believe it? I'll be home in less than 3 weeks. I'll be back in Utah in < 4. The worst part about leaving is not knowing when you'll be back. I'm excited to go home, but I don't want to think about leaving France indefinitely. I'm working on a list of things that I'll miss, but for now, I'll leave a list of things that I won't miss:
- no a/c
- mosquito bites (from leaving the windows open because of the lack of a/c)
- crappy internet/having to lean out the window for it to work
- useless nutrition facts (why do I want to know how many calories are in 100g if my portion is like 35g? why is the sodium/fiber/anything useful content never listed? why do some things have no nutrition facts at all?)
- my outdoor toilet
- creepy dudes hitting on me in the street/following me/generally being annoying
- having to wait for buses
- my boss
- having to use adapters for all things electric

my trip is planned!

2009-07-30T03:27:00.003-05:00

Here's a totally non sequitur picture of the inside of the Fourviere Basilica.

It's my second-to-last day here! We're celebrating early because it's Michelle-the-secretary's last day. Stephanie brought some gaufrettes maconnaises and I think there may be a cake, too. I can't wait for this afternoon! I love it when we have snack parties for those who are leaving, and now it's finally my turn to go! While I've really enjoyed meeting all the people here, I am so ready to be done.

The most exciting news I have to share is that I've booked everything for my trips! I decided that it was best to go ahead and book something, since the longer I waited, the more the prices were going up. Everything seems to be coming together, and I really hope that it all works out in the end. Planning a trip by myself is kind of scary, because if the people I'm planning on meeting up with change their plans, then I'll be left to fend for myself. Luckily, I've been here long enough that I'm confident that I would be just fine even if I did end up traveling alone.

Want to hear the best part of booking my tickets? I'm sure you do. I was searching through tickets to Frankfurt, and most of them were about 125 euros for the youth rate in 2nd class. I was annoyed, because that was a lot more than they had been a few days ago. Then I saw a fare for 59 euros, so I clicked on it, and then I saw that it was also a first-class ticket! I booked it right away because it was the last one available. The same thing happened when I was looking at tickets to Paris. The cheapest fare was in first class. I'm really excited about this. My travel is already costing me a ton, so I feel somehow vindicated to be able to enjoy some of it in first class for less than the normal fare :) Too bad it's only for the shortest legs of the journey.

I'm not going to write a detailed itinerary here, but for those who are curious, I decided to go to Frankfurt, London, and Paris. I'll meet up with friends from school in London and Paris, and I'll stay with family friends in Frankfurt, so I won't have to be alone during my travels. Plus, I only have to pay for lodging in Paris, which is great for a cheapskate like me. I'm getting excited now! It's easier to look forward to it now that I've actually booked everything.

It's exciting to think about traveling and even about going home soon, but it's starting to be bittersweet thinking about leaving. It's no secret that being here hasn't been easy, and I haven't always appreciated it as much as I should have. But as always, now that I'm about to leave, I'm realizing that I will miss France a lot. I already miss my friends who have left. I considered not going to Paris because I wanted to see other countries before leaving, but I'm glad that I'm going now because I want a few more days in France.

Well, I should probably at least pretend to be working on my dossier, considering that I have to turn it in tomorrow and it's still really stupid. I guess it's hard for me to be motivated to actually make it useful when I'm almost certain no one will ever read it, and if they do, then I won't be here to know about it. Who knows if the organization will even be around in a few months (yes, things are that bad)? Oh well, I've got like a day and a half to polish it up a bit.

And so with that, I'm off to go plan my vacation :)

Pictures!

2009-07-28T09:49:00.004-05:00

I should put more pictures on my blog. I have pretty ones, but it takes forever to upload them, so I get lazy. Here are a few of my most recent pictures. First is a picture of the quais du Saone from last Saturday:

Here are the quais du Rhone by night:

Here is a picture of my FHE friends, who I will miss! It's been fun to get to know them, even if only for a few weeks :)

A delicious raspberry tart:

Last night was fun with the Sisters, but the investigator we went to talk to wasn't home so we just got to leave a note. I was disappointed, but whatever. Today, I told my boss that I'm leaving Friday, and he seemed to already be aware of that, which is good! Only three days left of work. Yes!

I'm still trying to work out the details for my travel after this week, and it's so stressful! I hate how expensive it is and how hard it is to make decisions when you have too many options. I guess I shouldn't complain; I'm going on a European vacation for two weeks. No matter what I do, it can't be that bad, right?

the countdown begins!

2009-07-27T03:02:00.004-05:00

Well, it's the start of my final week here at the MDE. I'm definitely ready to be done here, since it's quite boring and unpleasant much of the time, but I'm also a little anxious because now I have to decide what to do with the rest of my time here in Europe. So far, I'm looking at going to London and Paris next week, and then either Germany or Amsterdam the week after that. I'm still not sure what I want to do. Any advice from my readers (who never leave me comments)?

Last Friday, when my professor was here, everything went well. He and I talked for about two hours about my internship and my life here. He was nice and understanding about it all. He waited for my boss to get back from the radio show and then he talked to him for another hour. I assume it went well; my boss was in a really good mood all day. The best news of all was that I'm allowed to finish early! That's really all that matters at this point.

Saturday, I enjoyed a quiet morning in my apartment. One of the best things about living alone is that you can do whatever you want and you don't have to worry about disturbing anyone. I went grocery shopping, too, since I had absolutely no food left. I literally had some Banania and a packet of cream of asparagus soup. For some reason, I really wanted to eat a baguette and butter, so that's what I bought for lunch. It was delicious. The quality of the ingredients makes all the difference in simple meals like that.

After shopping, I was disappointed to see that my internet had stopped working. Without internet, I feel very cut off from the world. Plus, I was supposed to meet up with my friends, and the only way we can communicate is through Facebook. I decided to make the most of the fact that I couldn't surf the 'net, so I watched a DVD for the first time since I've been here. I put on "A Hard Day's Night," which may be my favorite movie of all time. As I was watching it, I got distracted by other things and so I was only sort of watching. I realized that I nearly have the movie memorized. I don't even need to see it anymore; listening is enough for me to know exactly what's going on. If you haven't seen this movie yet, please come watch it with me. It's brilliant, especially once you've seen it a few times and had the chance to really take in every line.

Halfway through the movie, I got a text from Janina telling me that she'd let me know when she left her house so that I would know when to leave. However, she didn't mention where we were meeting, and I couldn't text back because I've run out of credit on my phone and I'm too cheap to buy more (it only comes in large increments and expires after a week). I decided to leave right away to go to McDonald's to use their free WiFi to check Facebook and find out where we were supposed to meet. My plan worked well, and so I met up with Celine, Veysel, and Janina. We went to the quais du Saône (to change things up a bit) and the others shared a bottle of wine. The view was gorgeous, and the weather was perfect.

Once we got tired of sitting in the sun, we went to an ice cream place near Vieux Lyon. I got chocorange flavor, and it was good, if a little heavy on the orange. We chatted some more and waited for Janina's roommates to meet up with us. Jose and Vincent came, and after a while we decided to go to a bar (again, this means like an outdoor cafe to Americans). You see, in France, people don't eat dinner at 6pm like we do in the States. We were planning to go to dinner together, but we had to bide our time in the bar until it was actually dinnertime. We started walking to the restaurant about 9:30, and so we were seated after 10pm. That is dinnertime in France.

We had Indian food for dinner, and while I enjoyed it, Bombay House is a whole lot better. Mostly I enjoyed the company. It was a sad night, though, because it's the last time most of us will see each other. Celine left Sunday, and Veysel leaves tomorrow. Janina and I will likely see each other again, since she's not leaving until Saturday. It's really weird to make friends here and then to know that we really may never see each other again. I'm sure that if I were ever to be in the same area as one of them again, they would be happy to see me again, but how likely is it that I'll end up back in Europe anytime soon? I guess it's possible, but it's not something I can count on. I wish I could bring them back to Utah with me. I think that would be super fun!

Tonight I'm going on splits with the sister missionaries. I'm really excited! The sisters here are so nice and it will be interesting to see what they actually do. I'll be thinking of all my friends who are on missions or who are leaving soon when I'm out on my one-night mini mission.

New Layout

2009-07-24T18:39:00.003-05:00

Since the layout of my blog necessarily reflects my personal design aesthetic, I decided it was time for a change. Unfortunately, I am lazy and lack any of the requisite skills to create a layout on my own, so I hope that the current choice is an improvement.

Is it easier/harder to read? Is it better looking? Let me know what you think.

boring update

2009-07-24T03:34:00.004-05:00

Nothing very exciting has happened in the last few days, but writing here = procrastinating work, and I'm a pro at procrastination. I've managed to avoid interacting with my boss this week, which means that things are going much better here. When I don't have to deal with him, it's pretty low-stress. I can tell if he's in a good mood or not by how the others react when they talk to him, and apparently this week has not been good. I'm glad that I get to sit here and play online and pretend to write a paper rather than having to be in meetings with him.

I've done nothing at all of interest for several days, but last night I did go out with Stephanie and Romain to have a drink in a bar. This sounds like something I shouldn't be doing, but in France, that means that I had a Perrier while we sat in an outdoor cafe. It was good for me to be out and interacting with people outside of work, but I was tired and glad to go home. I got home about 7 and promptly fell asleep on my couch. After I woke up, I ended up talking to Lacey and then my parents on Skype. It was fun to talk to Lacey because I haven't actually talked to any of my friends since I've been here. It's free and easy with Skype, so it's kind of weird that I've never thought of it before.

We discussed the fact that I may potentially join her and Liz on their European adventure, but I'm still working out the details. I think it would be fun to meet up with them but also expensive. Anyone who knows me knows that I find it painful to spend money, so I'm having a hard time being willing to spend the necessary money to travel, despite the fact that it's much cheaper to do it from here than it would be to come all the way from the US. Also, I have the money, I just have to decide if I'd rather use it to travel or save it.

My professor comes today, and I'm kind of nervous. I have no reason to be, but I'm just not sure what it will be like or what he'll have to say. I'm also crossing my fingers that he'll arrive after my boss has left for the radio interview. If not, then we might be forced to go and speak on the radio. This is not something I would enjoy. I'm not prepared at all, and I'd have to speak in a foreign language about complicated foreign policy issues. Plus, all of the research I've been doing has been in English, so I'm unfamiliar with the French terms. Hopefully it won't be an issue and I'll be able to stay here and do nothing, as always.

I'm relieved that it's Friday. I'm ready to sleep in. I don't have any firm weekend plans, but I think we may be going to the cinema museum (did you know that the Lumiere brothers, who invented film, were Lyonnais?) and/or getting together because Veysel is heading back to Turkey soon. Besides, I don't mind calm weekends. I don't really get bored when I'm alone. I'm kind of a solitary person sometimes.

I was rereading some of my old blog posts, and I have to say that I'm a terrible writer, and it's only getting worse. I think I used to know how to write well, but then I lost the ability as I got lazier and as I wrote more papers in French. Now I'm out of practice! Writing in a foreign language is entirely different, because without the same mastery of the language, you are forced to write in a more simplistic style.

I also think that living in Utah has made me sound stupider. I've been reading this blog lately (it's a great parody; I can't believe how accurate it is) and I'm afraid that I'm starting to write like her! Sad! I guess I need to stop hanging out with girls who talk like that or something.

Well, my professor should be here any minute. Maybe I should be working on something more serious when he arrives...

Busy Weekend!

2009-07-21T03:49:00.008-05:00

I haven't written in a while, which means that I now have a lot to catch up on! Last Friday was nothing special, although I did have to ask for Monday off and it was not a fun conversation. Saturday, I woke up, cleaned my apartment, went to the mall, bought some 6 Euro shoes, and picked my Dad up from the train station. It was great to have him here. We first went downtown and walked from the Place Bellecour to the Hotel de Ville/Opera and then down the other side of the Saone through Vieux Lyon. That's the pretty part of town. I'll include a few pictures, but just know that I can't really do it justice.

One of my favorite things about Lyon (and Europe generally) is that there are so many old things around! For an American, it's almost unfathomable to think that there are apartment buildings that people live in that date from the Middle Ages. We just don't have anything that old. Most of the buildings in Vieux Lyon (which are still occupied by ordinary people) date from the 1400s. This makes them older than the United States, the King James Bible, and even Modern English. I like putting them in context because it helps me realize just how old these buildings are. The Europeans I meet here think I'm weird for being so obsessed with old things (even ugly old things), but I find it incredible that cities here have such a long history and that people take the old and incorporate it into the new rather than tearing it down.

That night, we ate dinner at the yummiest restaurant I've been to in France so far. Here, prix fixe menus are the way to go, so you get three courses for a set price. For the entree (appetizer in America), I had a salad with goat cheese that was wrapped in these crunchy, crepe-like things. Dad had melon with something like prosciutto. For the plat (main dish) I had chicken in the Basque style (meaning cooked with bell peppers and onions) and Dad had some kind of fish casserole thing (it's hard to explain). For dessert, I had Blanc Manger (kind of like a mild sour cream mixed with heavy cream) with red berries and Dad had a crepe with rhubarb filling and chocolate sauce. Every course was delicious. The desserts were surprising, though, because neither one was sweet at all. Mine was very tart, but refreshing, while my Dad's was quite bitter. If you've ever tasted unsweetened chocolate, you can imagine what this was like. Surprising, but good.

Sunday, we went up to the Fourviere hill and walked around the Roman ruins there. Again, I love old things. I have a really hard time imagining that the theater and shops that I was walking through were around before Jesus was born. And even though they're more than 2000 years old, the public is allowed to walk all over the ruins for free. In fact, they even hold concerts in the larger amphitheater. I would love to go to a concert there, but they all happen after public transit shuts down for the night. I've already missed TV on the Radio and the Kronos Quartet! I'd love to hear their Sigur Ros covers in that theater.

After that, we went to the Fourviere Basilica, which was gorgeous inside! I'd already seen the outside, but it was great to actually go in. I also learned that the Basilica was built as a gift to God for saving Lyon from a cholera epidemic. It's a pretty elaborate gift; they must have been very grateful. We also saw an Audi R8, which I have never seen before in real life. For lunch, we had kebabs, which was fun because kebab shops are the French equivalent of little Mexican restaurants. I hadn't yet had the chance to have one, and I recommend it. Also, get the one with French fries in it. It's fun to eat fries IN your sandwich.

We went to Sacrament meeting, too, which is always the best part of Sunday, but it was probably boring for my Dad because he doesn't understand French. Later that night, we wandered around Vieux Lyon some more and ended up eating at another restaurant. I had émincé de volaille a la creme et aux champignons de bois, which sounds a whole lot fancier than chicken in a cream and mushroom sauce. We also got ice cream, which was delicious. I tasted red currant, but decided to go for pear. It had the actual taste and texture of a pear! Dad got black currant, which is usually my favorite flavor in French ice cream.

The bus home Sunday night was the creepiest bus I've ever been on. First of all, this weird guy who has harassed me before at the bus stop in my neighborhood happened to be on the bus. I think he's mentally ill; he kept laughing and talking to himself. Also, there were definitely no other blond girls on the bus. I really stood out. The worst was that there was this guy (who was clearly under the influence of something) who followed us from Bellecour almost to my house! We walked the wrong way and lost him around a corner because we didn't want him to see where I lived. He wasn't really menacing or anything, but he was certainly scary. I was glad that my Dad was with me because things like that are always scarier alone, but then I didn't want him thinking that it's always that bad. I've never been in any real danger in France. It's a lot safer than, say, Chicago at night.

Monday, we went back up to Bellecour and went to this chocolate shop because it's fancy and awesome inside. They have these gorgeous cakes and desserts all laid out on a refrigerated table and then tons of dark chocolate bars from all over the world. Plus, the truffles come in crazy flavor collections like herbal, balsamic, floral, and spiced. I tasted the ginger truffle and the alpine flower truffle. Both were delicious, although subtle. I'd really recommend stopping by if you happen to be in France :)

After that, we walked through a little flea market that had nothing useful for sale. I did see a hat that said "prelty" instead of "pretty" on it, but that was the highlight. We ended up going back to my apartment and getting some lunch at the boulangerie. It was so French and yummy. After we'd eaten, it was time to take Dad to the train station. He made it just in time. I was sad to see him leave, since it made it seem even more boring and lonely to be here alone after having had a visitor for a few days.

It feels like I've been here forever. It's been almost 7 weeks now, but I've still got almost 4 to go. I feel like I should be done already, mostly because everyone else I know here is. All of the interns I started with have left, and even some who arrived after me. At church, the girls doing internships have left or are leaving ASAP. Even one of my French friends is leaving this week to spend a month in Utah and California. So for the next month, I'm going to be even more alone here. I'm working on figuring out what to do for the next little while, so I'll let you know when I figure it out :)

My professor comes on Friday, so I'm kind of counting down the days until then. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get things figured out better after this weekend.

Harry Potter was OK

2009-07-16T09:47:00.003-05:00

I did indeed go see Harry Potter last night, and it was totally worth it. I really liked the movie, although I spent a good portion of it wondering why the chose to present things the way they did and when it was finally going to get to the good part. You see, there were lots of details that were different from the book, and yet I couldn't find a reason for it. It was just silly things that made it seem like the screenwriter hadn't even read the books. The most obvious example was the random attack on the Burrow. I still can't figure out how that addition furthered the narrative in any way.

I did enjoy the movie, though. I especially liked Draco Malfoy. I thought that the actor's performance was wonderful. I also enjoyed reading the French subtitles, mostly because it was weird seeing Harry Potter words and British idioms translated into French. I think that it highlighted my awareness of just how different American English is from British English

Today has been the quietest day ever. First of all, I somehow slept through my alarm and was nearly an hour late for work. When I got here, there was only one other intern. Eventually another showed up, but we all just sat here in silence pretty much all day. I'm really glad I didn't go to the event today with my boss. The silence was a relief after yesterday. Unfortunately, I have to stay all the way until 5 even though I'm totally not doing anything because now I'm in charge of the keys and answering the phone. Yay!

Tonight we're getting together with Katharina one last time before she heads home. I'll miss her! It's going to be really boring here from now on, I can tell.

Let it marche

2009-07-15T07:34:00.002-05:00

Today is the first day I've had to work since Friday, and the long weekend has only made me realize how terrible my internship is. I've been trying to pretend that it's fine, but after 6 weeks it's pretty hard to put up with it. But that's a topic for another time.

Monday, we were supposed to have work, despite the fact that basically every French person in the universe was taking the day off. You see, with a holiday on Tuesday, what sane French person wouldn't "faire le pont" and make it a long weekend? So we show up at the Maison de l'Europe only to find that everything is all locked up. The elevator won't work and the door at the top of the stairs is locked and we don't have the key. We run into a couple of random people who tell us to go home because it's probably an insurance risk to try to get into a locked building like that. So we waited for an hour or so and then went and had a drink together in a cafe before going our separate ways.

I was glad for the day off, since it allowed me to go grocery shopping and take a nap and stuff. Then on Tuesday, there was no work again for Bastille Day. I woke up and watched the military parade on TV. It was kind of boring, but worth watching once. I really liked the jets that made the French flag in the air with colored smoke and the cavalry officers who did a kind of synchronized dance on horseback. I also liked the foreign legion with their beards and axes. Then there were parachutists who were dropped over Paris and managed to steer themselves so that they landed right in front of the President's tent! It was crazy. The whole affair was very well-choreographed and pretty.

After that, I did nothing all day. I did do some dishes and clean a bit, but I still have a lot more to do, including laundry. I'm way too lazy. In the evening, I met up with my wonderful former MDE interns to see the fireworks. Unfortunately, it started raining, and hard. We went to a cafe to have a drink and see if the storm would pass, but it didn't. During a little pause in the rain, we headed over to a Turkish restaurant that our Turkish compatriot described as possibly the best Turkish restaurant in France. I can attest that it was delicious, although I admittedly have no other experience with Turkish food to compare it to. I'd go back. It was super cheap, too, which is a plus when you're on a budget like I am.

After dinner, we wandered around Vieux Lyon, which is super pretty and quaint, although rather touristy. By this time, we'd heard that the fireworks were cancelled, which was very disappointing, but we walked around for a bit anyway. I definitely heard more English there than I've heard in all my time in Lyon. I'm not sure what brought so many Americans all the way out here, but it was a little weird. By about 11:00, we started to head home because there was nothing to see and we didn't want to miss the last buses of the night.

I got to my bus stop and read on the sign that the bus wouldn't come for another 58 minutes, and that that bus would be the last. Now the bus stop I was at was a little scary at night, due to all of the homeless men who sit there and harass people. Also, buses here are known for randomly not showing up, so I was nervous that the bus wouldn't come at all. I was seriously afraid. I did not want to walk home alone at midnight through an unfamiliar city. I knew from previous experience that it would take about an hour to walk from there. Luckily, a kind old man helped reassure me that the bus would indeed come. Then, out of nowhere, a random bus came along after only 20 minutes and took me safely home. I have never in my life been so glad to see a bus.

This morning was back to work, though. And I had the luck to start of the morning with a meeting with our lovely boss. He informed us that it was all our fault that we hadn't been able to get into the building and that we all have to make up the hours. This is totally ridiculous for many reasons, namely that if he knew that the building would be locked, he should have been there himself or taken the time to tell us what to do. I was so angry that I tried to argue with him, but the stress of the situation plus the stress of having to speak a foreign language was too much, and I ended up saying something he didn't understand and then I started crying a little. I wasn't sad or trying to make him feel bad or anything, I just couldn't help it! I was so embarrassed afterward, which certainly didn't help. I felt so incredibly dumb. I hate crying more than anything.

Unfortunately, he didn't even seem to notice my weakness, so the embarrassment couldn't even help sway him a little. Instead, it was the other interns who saw and then I felt even more awkward. I wish I could explain the things he says and how he says them, because it's totally out of line. After that meeting (which involved several other confrontations about several different issues), I was ready to quit today. I'm seriously considering quitting a few weeks early because I'm not sure how much more of it I can put up with. My French professor is coming to visit next week, and I'm not sure if I should tell him about my concerns before his visit or not. I'm afraid that either way it will be awkward. But I'm definitely going to make sure that he is aware of what I've experienced here. I hate complaining, and I probably shouldn't do it here, but quite honestly, my internship is a big part of my life here and I think I've managed to stay pretty unbiased about the whole thing.

I think I'm going to go see Harry Potter tonight. It's a bit of a hassle since the showtimes are either right after 5pm, which doesn't give me time to get there, or at like 8 or 9 pm, which is too late for me to come back on public transportation. I'm planning to leave here like 5 minutes early so that I can be sure to be on time. If I don't see it today, then I have to wait a week because I have plans all weekend. I'm just not sure I can wait a week for Harry Potter! Also, I'm likely to forget to go, which would be terrible.

I think my friend Mike is coming to visit tomorrow. It should be fun to have a friend here, but I'm not sure what it will be like since we haven't really seen each other since high school. I guess we'll see?

Dinner Party

2009-07-12T13:03:00.004-05:00

I love Sundays. It's so calm and quiet living alone, too. It gives me time to sum up the past few days for all of you. Friday was the dinner at Katharina's. It was so fun! We represented 7 nationalities (French, German, Italian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Turkish, and American) and had more food than we could possibly eat. I tried mish-mash, which is a Bulgarian vegetable dish, a Turkish dish with beef and eggplant, a German creamy soup, fresh French cheese, and Tiramisu. It was all so good! Plus, I always love things like that that make me feel international and like I'm definitely not in the US anymore.

I stayed at Katharina's afterward because it was late and I didn't want to take the bus. I got to sleep in the coolest room. Her apartment is really old and artsy and charming. I've attached the picture of the view out of the window. So cute! The only problem is that the two of us stayed up until about 5 am talking. We ended up sleeping in until 12:30 and then we talked all afternoon and ate leftovers from the night before. About 7pm, we went over to Janina's to eat the rest of the food with everyone. There were so many leftovers! Janina's apartment is so cute, too. It's very French, with the big, delicate windows and tall ceilings. I'll have to take some pictures sometime.

Today, I woke up at 9, even though I wanted to sleep in. I just did random things all morning, but then I got really tired, so I took a nap. Trouble is, I forgot to set an alarm and ended up waking up around 2pm. Church started at 2, and I still had to get ready and make the trek all the way out to Villeurbanne. I showed up during the opening prayer for Sacrament Meeting, which is the last of the three meetings. Oops.

After church, I was supposed to meet up with the stagiaires at the park, but I couldn't find them. By the time I got their call, I was already on my way home. Apparently they had tried to call, but for some reason it didn't go through. I feel so bad, though, because they were probably waiting for me for like an hour!

I got to talk to my family ce soir, which is always fun. Apparently they can't come visit me at the end of my time here, so now I have to figure out what to do. I can either travel alone or change my ticket to come home earlier. I guess I could hang out here alone, too. I'm going to look into possible trips that I could take during the week that I have free. Got any ideas? I always like comments :)

It's finally Friday

2009-07-10T04:54:00.005-05:00

Today I'm working surprisingly hard. Usually the internet is far more interesting than writing. I think it's because I have to print out what I have so far and go over it with my boss this afternoon. I don't have much, and it's mostly in English, so I'm not sure how that will go over. Honestly, I think that no matter what I have done, his comments will be the same. And by having it in English, he won't be able to read it but he'll pretend that he can. I'm probably saving myself some criticism by copying and pasting newspaper articles. Don't worry; I'm citing them.

Last night I went grocery shopping for the first time in like a week. I really needed food. I bought some fromage blanc with blueberries, and it is amazing. I love all of the dairy products here. What am I going to do without them when I go back? I would seriously eat that stuff every day. I also bought stuff to make chili for a dinner party tonight with all of the interns and friends. I'm supposed to bring something American, and it was very difficult for me to think of a food that we eat that doesn't already exist here in a more delicious form. It certainly didn't help any that I eat quite differently from the average American. In the end I settled on chili, which I hope will be edible to Europeans who are sensitive to spiciness.

I was worried that my chili was going to turn out weird since I have never made chili before and I couldn't find all of the right ingredients. The tomato products I used were kind of different, and I ended up buying a strange spice mix labeled "tex-mex" because it was the only way to get cumin and chili powder, which are critical for chili. I had no idea how it was all going to taste. Making the chili itself was super easy. I had no idea it was so straightforward! After waiting patiently for it to finish, I anxiously tasted it to see if it was even close to the American version. I was delighted to find that not only was it edible, but it was delicious! It is, however, a bit on the spicy side due to an accident with the chili paste. I'm crossing my fingers that the spice will mellow out before this evening.

I'm excited for our dinner party. We're going to represent all kinds of nationalities since some of the interns are bringing friends/significant others/etc. from different countries. I will definitely have to write about this in my academic journal (which will likely consist of copying and pasting excerpts from this very blog). I'll be sure to let you know how it goes :)

In other news, I'm not going to Metz this weekend. I'm disappointed because it would have been fun, but it will also be really nice to have some free time to catch up on boring things like laundry and cleaning my apartment. There are also plenty of things in Lyon that I haven't seen yet, so I won't be bored. And by not missing a day Monday, I'll be more flexible when my Dad gets here next weekend. Now I have to rearrange my whole weekend a little, though. I told this guy from church that I couldn't go to his get-together on Saturday, but now I can. Trouble is, I don't want to have to call him. First, I hate talking on the phone. Second, I hate talking on the phone in French. Third, I have no credit left on my phone and I don't know how to buy it in reasonable increments without a French bank account. Oh well, I'll figure it out.

It's lunchtime now, so I think I'll be taking a break soon. I actually brought a lunch today, which is very unusual for me, but I like it! I need to cook more in my apartment. It's really nice to eat real meals.

Excusez-moi, madame

2009-07-09T12:57:00.002-05:00

I just have to mention that there is this lady who lives down the street from me. Every day, almost without fail, she asks me what the date is with some kind of foreign accent. She stands on her balcony and says to all of the passers-by "Excusez-moi madame, quel jour est-ce?" Then I tell her it's Thursday or whatever, and she proceeds to ask "Et quelle est la date?" and I tell her that it's the 9th of July. She then goes back inside for about 30 seconds before coming back out to ask the next person who comes along.

I realized today that I'd never mentioned her because she is such a normal part of my everyday routine. I guess she keeps life interesting, right?

Pictures!

2009-07-09T03:50:00.006-05:00

I thought I'd add a few pictures, just for fun. Check Facebook for more.

The banks of the Rhone, our favorite picnic destination in Lyon:

Downtown Geneva:

In front of the UN:

Here's Lac Leman, or Lake Geneva and the Jet d'Eau:

Yesterday was a pretty unremarkable day. My boss did ask to see a copy of my paper (which is still very much unwritten) by Monday, which is the first time he's seemed to care whether I finish it or not. He said that if he doesn't see it by then and help me fix the problems in it, I'll never be able to finish before the end of my internship. This made me laugh inside, since the entire project could be finished in a week if I were motivated enough to actually do something about it.

In the afternoon, we had a meeting, which was totally a waste of time. He opened all of the mail, read it out loud, and sorted it with us there. Bills, random advertisements, and other tedious mail items aren't exactly my biggest concern. He then proceeded to remind us that we need a doctor's note if we're sick and we need to ask before taking a day off. He talks to us like we're infants who've never had a job before, when most of the interns are, in fact, more qualified for his job than he is. The meeting went on like this for about 2 hours.

He also asked me about a PowerPoint that I'd been redoing, and I said that I wanted to fix it more because each slide was just a paragraph. I wanted to make the slides easier to read and more visually stimulating while moving some of the information to an accompanying Word document that the presenter could use as a basis for their presentation. He then argued with me and Katharina about this for several minutes, saying that no one in their right mind would ever read something like that before presenting. He told us that if the presenter didn't have all of the information available right in the presentation, then he or she would simply ignore it. He also informed us that we are perfectionists and need to loosen up a bit because we take time to prepare ourselves before giving a presentation. It's moments like that where I completely understand why no one wants to work with the Maison de l'Europe here.

I also chatted online with a friend who I haven't spoken to in over two years. He's been on a mission in Germany, and it was cool to hear a little about it. It's really weird to think that all of the missionaries from freshman year will be back in the fall. It will be cool but also very weird to see them. I can't believe that I'm pretty much older than missionaries. Weird.

My family is back from vacation, so I got to talk to my Mom last night. It was really nice. In other news, I may be headed to Metz for the weekend. I realized that Tuesday is a holiday (Happy 14th of July!) and I have a day that I need to take off, so if I can work it out with my boss, I might try to have a long weekend and go see a friend in Metz. I'm worried that it might be kind of weird, especially since it's so last minute, but it would be cool to see a region I've never seen before and to get out of town for a bit.

Approximately 19 more days of my internship. Woohoo!

Bourg-en-Bresse

2009-07-07T14:38:00.002-05:00

Today was kind of an eventful day. We went to Bourg-en-Bresse, a city about halfway between here and Geneva to talk to some people who are in a work-training program. In order to get there on time, we had to leave Lyon at 7:20 am. This meant that I needed to leave my house about 6:30am. I haven't been sleeping much because of my trip to Geneva and everything, so I was pretty exhausted all day. In fact, I was so tired that I really couldn't speak French anymore. It was kind of comical, but I kept saying things in English even when I was trying to speak French! I definitely need more sleep.

I got to the train station on time, and once we all met up, we went up to where the train should be. A train pulled into the station a couple of minutes before ours was supposed to leave, so we got on. Then a voice told us that we were headed to Metz, and our train was supposed to be going to Strasbourg. We then hurried to try to get off, but the train instantly started moving! Rather than jumping from a moving train, we talked to the conductor and he told us to get off at the next stop and catch a connecting train. It wasn't too much of a hassle, but we were about 40 minutes later than we had anticipated and we had no way to reach the lady who was supposed to pick us up. In the end, she called the Maison de l'Europe and got our number, so it was alright in the end. Now I can say that I've been to both Macon and Bourg-en-Bresse, though...

The training was fine, but kind of boring. Luckily, some of the people seemed interested, which is always refreshing. Afterward, Katharina and I had to eat lunch with our boss. We would rather not do that, both because it's unpleasant and because we feel weird having the organization pay for us to eat out when it's already underfunded. It wasn't so bad, though. The food was quite good, unlike last time we ate with him. I had chicken wings (who knew that that's what "pilons" meant?) and chocolate mousse for dessert. Yummy!

I'm trying to make pasta for dinner, but my little electric burner seems to be fading. I've had it on the highest setting for half an hour and I can't get the water to boil. I guess I'll try cooking pasta by soaking it in warm water? I really wish I had a stove and an oven. Then I'd probably eat things besides bread, cheese, cereal, and yogurt.

After tomorrow, I'll be halfway done with my internship. That is exciting and weird at the same time. I don't love my internship, especially now that pretty much everyone is gone. Once Katharina leaves, it's going to be super weird and boring. The new people are nice, but a lot older than me. I hope the 4 weeks go by quickly.

Confederatio Helvetica

2009-07-06T16:03:00.002-05:00

Well I'm back from Geneva! It was a really fun trip. Saturday, we arrived and then went to buy chocolate right away (what else do you do in Switzerland?). We then went to meet up with Annah's friend Dan and we went with him to the St. Pierre cathedral, where John Calvin preached, but it was closed for a wedding, which was annoying. We wandered around the old town for a bit and went to the park with giant chess sets and the Reformation Wall. Unfortunately, that was covered up for a presentation in honor of Calvin's 500th birthday. After that we went down to the lake to see the Jet d'Eau, which was a very pretty area.

We were going to go to a party for Americans (seeing as it was the 4th of July), but it was going to rain so we didn't. We did end up going to see a family that Annah knew and we had a little cookout and watched this rugby movie that I'd seen advertised a lot in Utah. It was a lot of fun! The weather ended up being gorgeous, and the food was great. It was a non-traditional but wonderful 4th.

Sunday, we learned that our hotel had no towels. That was a lot of fun. We went back into Geneva, met up with Dan, and went to the United Nations. After looking around, we went back and headed to church. It was an American ward, and I felt very at home being in church with everyone speaking English. We even saw the Badgers, the senior missionary couple who does FHE every week in Lyon. After church, Annah and I went back to St. Pierre's so I could see inside, and just as we were getting off the bus, it started pouring. We were wet the rest of the day.

We wandered around the old town some more, stopping to get some ice cream (the man who sold it to us refused to speak French with me, which bothered me) and to see the combination parking garage/archeological site. Then we made our way back to the train station and back to Lyon.

Today at work I found out that my boss wants to see what I've been working on, but I also think that I've been doing something different than what he expects. I think he wants me to copy and paste press articles into something that's only slightly coherent. I want to write a useful article explaining what I've researched. I think I'm going to print like 50 pages of news articles in English, since that's what he's expecting, and then just write the paper like I want to afterward.

I went to FHE tonight and it was super fun! We had an American flag cake and sang "The Star-Spangled Banner." I loved hearing it with a French accent! It was really random and funny for some reason. I also met some new people, including Benoit-Lancelot, who has my new favorite first name ever. I even think that one of the guys is going to have a little get-together Saturday night. If I stay in town this weekend, that would be fun! I want to get to know the members better, but it's hard because we see each other once a week, and all of the Americans want to talk to me after FHE so I often don't even get a chance to introduce myself to the French kids. Tonight was a little better, though, and I'm glad.

Tomorrow I have to go to Bourg-en-Bresse to give a presentation. It's not a short trip, so I'm kind of excited to see a new place, but I'm not excited that I have to be at the train station at 7 am again, especially because I haven't had enough sleep in quite a while now. Oh well, it will give me two extra hours, which means I can take a whole day off sometime.

I'll post pictures soon; it isn't working now. Bonne Nuit!

Berges du Rhone

2009-07-03T09:43:00.002-05:00

Last night was fun! We went down to the berges du Rhone and had our little picnic there. It was much nicer weather, since it was evening, and we I enjoyed just relaxing with friends in such a beautiful place. It's impossible to capture in a picture, but it's just amazingly beautiful being there with the river and the old buildings along the edge and the hills and everything. Lyon is super pretty when you stop to take it all in.

After the picnic, I went back to my apartment for a bit, and then I met up with a girl from church. She's writing her thesis on French food, so we went to dinner near the Place Bellecour. You should all be proud of me because I ate foie gras for the first time! I feel like I'm really turning French now. I have to admit, though, that I didn't eat all of it. It was kind of hard for me to eat it because I knew what it was and that grossed me out. It didn't have a very strong flavor. It was kind of creamy and salty. I think I also didn't know how to feel about a meat product that was creamy. It was a strange texture experience.

After our lovely dinner, we realized that it was just after midnight. We were wandering back toward the Place Bellecour for me to catch the bus (which was so pretty and quintessentially French - restaurants and old buildings by moonlight) when we realized that I'd missed the last bus. I could have taken the tram to somewhere near my apartment, but since I didn't really know how to do that, I slept over at Paige's apartment. It was kind of awkward since I wasn't prepared, but she was totally cool about it and it was fun to talk more as we were going to bed. I woke up early this morning and went back to my apartment, showered, and went to work. I definitely didn't get enough sleep, so I'm going to have to go to bed early tonight.

This morning, my landlord offered me an air conditioning unit. That would be the most amazing thing ever. I'm really hoping that he'll be there to install it this afternoon. We're having another picnic tonight, too, which will be fun, as long as I don't stay out too late.

I'm leaving in the morning for Geneva (I have to be at the train station at 7 am!), and I'm really excited. It will be so fun. I'll be sure to report on the details and I might even post some pictures.

A plus!

af hverju er ég ekki á Íslandi?

2009-07-02T08:45:00.002-05:00

I went to the train station last night to pick up my ticket to Geneva, and it made it seem much more real that I'm actually leaving town this weekend. I'm very excited! One thing I'd really like to see is the church where John Calvin preached. After taking a class on the history of the Reformation, I think I'd really appreciate seeing it.

However, as I was doing my daily rounds of different news sources on the internet, I discovered that there is a big Icelandic folk music festival this weekend in Iceland, and Sigur Rós will be performing there along with traditional chanters, etc. Considering that I am currently closer to Iceland than usual, I feel like I'm missing out! I was looking at the festival's website, and I think it would be the coolest thing ever to go. I'd totally be looking for plane tickets if I hadn't already booked everything for Geneva. I know it's ridiculous, but Sigur Rós and Iceland are my two biggest obsessions at this point in my life.

Anyway, while I was waiting for the girl I'm going to Geneva with to get to the train station so we could both get our tickets, I decided to take advantage of the sales and spend a few minutes in the mall there. Most things were still expensive, but I ended up in the Galeries Lafayette and there were bins of things for 1 Euro or 5 or 10. There were tons of things that had been inexpensive to begin with that were like 70% off. I got a scarf and a belt for a Euro each, and some perfume for 2 Euros. I also got a very silly novelty gift for 20 centimes and now I just have to decide who to give it to...

Today has been super hot. Miserably hot. The forecast for this weekend looks slightly better, but still not as cool as I'd like. I'm so not a summer person!

Guess what? I have 5 weeks left in my internship. After this week, I will have completed 4. I didn't realize until I got here that I had signed up for 9 weeks instead of 8, but I suppose it's not that big of a deal. I will, however, be very lonely after this week because pretty much everyone will be gone. Once Katharina leaves (in 2 weeks) I will be all alone with the new interns, who are nice, but kind of serious and they keep to themselves. The atmosphere just won't be the same. Oh well, maybe I'll start being more productive?

Tonight we're planning on having a little snack-picnic thing on the banks of the Rhone. I'm so sleepy that I kind of don't want to go, but I always end up having fun when I do things with friends. That's kind of the point of coming to France, right? To speak French with people? So I'm going. Now I just have to find something to bring...

On one final, Sigur Rós related note, I found this page celebrating the 10th anniversary of Ágætis Byrjun. It's all cool, but the media page (which I linked to) is amazing, especially the "song manipulation" section. I feel like I have made a life-changing discovery by learning, for example, that the Intro is "Ágætis Byrjun" backwards! I love details like that. I just love Sigur Rós, period.

deja juillet?

2009-07-01T04:32:00.004-05:00

Yesterday evening was so fun... I had to walk home from work. The strikes meant that there was one bus an hour, and after I waited for my bus, it was so full that they wouldn't let anyone else on. So I walked home with my heavy bad and my laptop and everything. It took me about 45 minutes, and it was approximately 90 degrees outside. I got home and just laid down in my bed and I never wanted to get up. It really wasn't that bad, but I'm going to appreciate the smelly buses more from now on.

This morning I woke up early because I had to "recharge" my transit pass, seeing as it is the first of the month. It was easy to do, and I was grateful because administrative things are never that simple in France.

I suppose the most exciting thing I have to report is that I'm going to Geneva for the weekend! I'm pretty excited about it. The train tickets are about 30 Euros and the hotel is $30 US, so it won't even be that expensive. I'm going with an American girl from church, and she knows the city pretty well because she did an internship there last summer. We may also be going to a 4th of July party with some Americans, which would be fun.

I'm pretty excited for the food, too. We're going to eat raclette and fondue and chocolate and all kinds of amazing things. Plus, I get to cross another country off of my list. I always enjoy that. I wonder if I'll get a new stamp in my passport?

It's officially July. Time flies! I realized I only have three free weekends left in France. I need to take advantage of my time here.

We're listening to a sweet CD of protest music from the former Soviet bloc countries, and it's creating a perfect ambiance for researching the fall of the Berlin wall. I might need to make a copy...

I also need to mention one of the words I've learned because I keep forgetting it: arobase. It means @. Like in email addresses and stuff. It's definitely a word that I would never have thought to look up, but I find myself having to use it frequently!

One more random thought: I find that French people have a different sense of what constitutes a relationship. I'm not talking about romantic relationships, but any relationship at all. For instance, in the US, being neighbors constitutes a relationship, but being in an elevator together does not. Therefore, it is appropriate to say hi to your neighbors when you come home but you aren't required to say hi to the person sharing the elevator with you. Here, you are definitely supposed to say hi to people in the elevator. You're supposed to say bonjour to employees in a store, to your bus driver, and to people you know.

You are not, however, supposed to make eye contact or smile at anyone in the street. Smiling at people you don't know will be interpreted as being very rude or very flirtatious. I've really had to focus on not looking at people after spending so much time in Utah. People there are ridiculously friendly and smile at everyone. I'm getting better at this, thankfully.

Americans often say that the French are impolite and not very welcoming, and I think this stems largely from a misinterpretation of French politesse. If you say bonjour to the boulanger, he or she is going to be much nicer to you than if you forget. Americans often don't even realize that they are being rude by not acknowledging the person they're talking to. Inversely, the French seem rude to Americans when they walk down the street looking down and not paying attention to anyone. However, they see no reason to interact with strangers and are being polite by not intruding on your personal life by interacting with you. It's just something I've noticed.

Anyway, enough of my random thoughts. A demain!

banania is a cool word

2009-06-30T04:11:00.003-05:00

I'm trying to update more frequently so that I don't end up with tons of stuff to say in one post. Then I avoid posting at all because it seems overwhelming. Yesterday was a pretty normal work day. I didn't do anything, but we did get four new interns. Now we have 15 interns working here and about enough work for one. Several are leaving after this week, too, so it will be weird with a new mix of people.

The new interns are all getting their masters or doctorates, and I'm sure they're going to be spending their time cutting articles out of the newspaper or counting how many people have come to our conferences this year. Those are the kinds of tasks being assigned to everyone but me. I'm the lucky one who gets to write a long paper. Two other girls have to write a paper, too, but our boss is rushing them through it. I can't figure out why he thinks that my paper is such a big deal, but I'm not complaining. If he leaves me alone, I'm happy.

Last night, I went to FHE again. I met some new people and chatted with the missionaries for a while. I really like having people to talk to, in English and in French.

I also went grocery shopping last night for the first time in a while. I needed more cereal, and since about 90% of the cereals in France are covered in chocolate, I decided to try one of them. I got this cereal that's like crunchy chocolate squares filled with more chocolate. It's pretty yummy, and it's also healthy according to the package.

I also wanted some chocolate milk mix because I've been craving it lately, and I was sorting through all of the options when I came across Banania. It's like Nesquik, but with grains and banana flakes in it, although you certainly can't taste them. It is intended to be a healthy breakfast for children! You're supposed to mix it with milk in a bowl and eat it (warm or cold) just like that. I tried it, and it tastes like chocolate milk, although it's richer than Nesquik or anything I've tried in the US. I'm sure it's about as healthy as any chocolate milk mix, but the packaging sure makes me feel like I'm eating a balanced diet!

In case these two examples of what I eat in France haven't given it away, I'm worried that I'm not eating a very healthy diet here. I can't find normal, healthy foods to eat, so I just eat all of the delicious treats that are available. However, as I've observed, French people eat this way all the time. I've started paying attention to what I eat more, and I've been buying fruit juice (because fruit is insanely expensive!) for the vitamins. I eat a lot of yogurt and other dairy products, too, because I need the protein. Plus, I really like the yogurt and cheese here :)

Today is the last day of the transportation strikes that have been happening all month, and as such, the buses and trains are nearly all out of commission. I was almost an hour late to work! Some people even had to walk. I'm glad that the strikes will officially be over, but this is France, and they're bound to continue. Even if they don't, the bus service is intermittent at best. It's just a fact of life in France that you can't be in a hurry if you plan to use public transportation.

Tonight we're having a little reception to give away prizes to people who got the most answers right on a quiz we gave out. I think I'm going to stay for it because I'd like the extra hours. Now it's lunchtime and I'm off to Leader Price to buy something random to eat.

More Pictures

2009-06-29T09:33:00.006-05:00

1 - random bowling picture
2 - the Rhone
3 - the church building
4 - a stand we had at a neighborhood party in a bad suburb of Lyon

the past week or so...

2009-06-28T15:42:00.004-05:00

Well, I've been a pretty crappy blog writer this week. It's hard to type with your computer hanging out the window, so I get bored and I don't feel like writing. Anyway, I'll give a quick summary of the past week or so because I need to document it all and this is substituting for my journal for the moment.

Last Saturday, I went to my friend Katharina's apartment. It took me FOREVER to get there because the bus that went up to her neighborhood was not running due to a Gay Pride Parade. Finally, I arrived and saw here totally cute apartment in the Croix Rousse neighborhood. It made me jealous of her living situation. I want to live in a cute apartment with fun roommates in an artsy neighborhood! Oh well.

We had planned to go up to Fourviere and to wander around the old part of town. Unfortunately, all of the buses in the whole area weren't running because of the stupid parade. Across the river from her was the Parc de la Tete d'Or, which I had never been to. She had only picnicked there. We wandered around, admiring the lovely lake, and then we stumbled across the zoo in the middle. Yes, this park is big enough that it's possible to go there and not see the zoo. We learned all about the names of weird animals in French and generally had a wonderful time. My favorite animal name is the "porc epic" or porcupine. My favorite other word I learned is "ourserie" which rhymes with "nursery" and means the place where bears live. So cute! So French!

Sunday, I went to church for the first time. Thankfully, people were there this time. It was pretty good, although I was tired and had a hard time focusing. I usually have this problem in church, but it was much worse because I had to focus quite a lot to understand anything that was being said. It was my first time going to "backwards" church, too. We had Relief Society first, then Sunday School, then Sacrament Meeting. I sat by this really nice girl in RS, and then again in Sacrament Meeting. I didn't ask for her name, but she was cool. I also met Rebecca, who invited me to FHE on Monday night for the singles. There were two sets of missionaries: sisters and elders. They were both so nice. I think the sisters might be some of the nicest people I've met here.

I felt better about my language skills after seeing the new missionaries struggle with the language, but I also felt really bad for them. They've been in France hardly longer than I have, but they don't have 8 years of French experience to draw on like I do.

So Monday, I went to FHE. Once I found it, it was fun. The Institute building was right by the Maison de l'Europe, which is cool. I came in halfway through the lesson, and then we ate pancakes prepared by the senior missionary couple. I met some cool people. Another American, Annah, is here doing an internship even though she speaks no French. I also met a new convert who seemed nice, although we only talked for a minute. The missionaries also gave me a French Book of Mormon, which will be useful on Sundays...

Tuesday, I was told to go to the local appeals court to take notes for a training session that the MDE had been invited to. Coralie, Katharina, and I showed up about 9am, as we'd been told to, only to find out that the MDE was in charge of the training and the speaker hadn't showed up yet. Crap. Coralie called the other interns, but no one could find the speaker's phone number. She then called our boss, who also had no way to contact him. She eventually realized that our boss had given the guy the wrong address. How do you do that? And how do you have no contact info for him?

So Coralie and I went to the address he'd been given to see if he was still there, while Katharina stayed behind and improvised a presentation on the MDE and the European Union. She is amazing for being able to do that. Luckily, Coralie recognized the speaker because he's a professor at her school, and we happened to run into him as he was leaving the place he'd been told to go to. After that, everything went normally, even if the presentation was remarkably boring. I also got to go to McDonald's for lunch in a mall, so I pretended I was back in the US.

Work has been pretty much the same this week. Coralie finished her internship Wednesday, and Veysel and Leila are done as of today. A bunch of people leave after next week. I'm going to be so lonely! I don't know how I'm going to make it until August if they're all gone. Ugh. I hope we still hang out or something.

Thursday night, we went bowling. It was so fun! Very American. I even bowled a few good frames! Friday, I went to a cafe with Veysel, Celine, Dessi, and Katharina. I got hot chocolate because it was kind of cold and rainy out, and it was delicious! I forgot that here, hot chocolate is actually made with chocolate. I had to stir mine for a few minutes to melt the chunks of chocolate in the bottom. Also, you have to add the sugar yourself! It was cool. We also realized that we were a very international group, since none of us were from the same country. We represented France, Germany, Bulgaria, Turkey, and the US. Isn't that cool? I have international friends! I can hang out with people and speak French the whole time! This is a very big deal to me!

I felt very cool and European as they all talked about visiting different cities in the near future and stuff. I could go to Strasbourg or Geneva or Brussels or wherever for the weekend if I wanted to. From the US, that's just not possible. I really need to start taking advantage of my current geographical location.

Last night, I went to a stake dance, which was fun. It was for the whole family, so there were little kids and old people and everyone in between. There was food, too. It was actually much more fun than other stake dances because it wasn't that awkward teenager thing, but it was more like a big party.

Today was church, which was fun. I've written way too much already. Check Facebook for pictures of it all. I can even send a link to anyone who doesn't have Facebook so you can see the pictures :)

2009-06-19T07:56:00.003-05:00

Can you believe it? I've made it through 2 weeks on the job already! It's gone by super fast. I'm hoping that it will continue to do so, because I'd rather have time fly than drag. It means you're enjoying yourself.

Things are continuing to improve here, as I'm adjusting to the language better and finding ways to fill up my time. Wednesday, I even went out with some of the other interns after work. We went to a little cafe/bar thing that was literally on the edge of the river. Part of it was on the quai and part of it was on a barge in the water. It was cute, but it cost me 3 euros for a Perrier.

After that, we went to dinner at this Asian restaurant called Mendo. It was delicious! It is my favorite restaurant that I've been to in France so far. I got Pad Thai, and although it was an incarnation I've never seen before, it was still very yummy. I really liked being out with friends, and it was cool to think that I was hanging out with real Europeans! While I was there, I was remembering what it was like being in French classes in Junior High and thinking that hanging out with French people would have been the most exotic and cool thing in the world. And there I was, doing just that.

Yesterday, I chatted with some friends online at work, which was fun because it kept me occupied. I also got to chat with my Mom after work, which was great because she's been in Utah for a while and we haven't been able to talk at all.

Later last night, I went with Lydia (the daughter of the family) and an American family that's staying below me to get a snack. They got kebabs, and I got an Orangina. I wasn't really hungry. It was weird to speak English again, and especially in public, but it was fun. The family has a daughter who is 14, and she was way cute and so excited to be in France. I'm sure they'll have a great time.

Today is much cooler than yesterday, and I'm grateful. I really can't stand the heat. I think I'm definitely from Scandinavia; I need a climate that never gets above 70 degrees. JK, but not really. I'm glad that it's Friday and that I've got one more week under my belt here. Like I said, time flies when you're having fun, so I'm glad that it's been going by so quickly. Bethany mentioned hier that she wanted to see if her parents would buy her a ticket to come here to see me. I would love that! Especially if she came sooner rather than later, since there are people who are going to be here later in July and August.

I guess this summer will pass by more quickly than I thought at first. And while it would have been nice to have people here with me for the beginning (which is the hardest part), it also would have delayed the inevitable culture shock that was bound to happen anyway. I was lucky, anyway, since I had a weekend with Katie and Karine as well as the wonderful B. family to help me get adjusted. Even though I had a few days where I was really not myself, it was never super painful and I made it through. Also, I am grateful for the internet, because I'd be lost without the ability to keep in touch with home.

Well, I haven't got much else to report. Tout va bien pour l'instant.

2009-06-16T12:20:00.002-05:00

Well, today is a day like any other here. I woke up to some loud music outside at 6 am, and then just laid in bed until I had to get up. Since I was early to work yesterday, I decided to take a later bus today. It made for a nice, relaxing morning having 15 minutes of extra time. I even got to eat breakfast before leaving. I was happy to find that the bus even came close to on time, which is rare here. Sometimes the buses just don't come at all, and they're usually at least 10 minutes late. Also, there's some kind of transportation workers' strike that's been interfering with everything this week, so I was glad to see the bus arrive.

The bus was pretty empty, which is also rare. Usually, I spend the whole time pressed up against some strangers and hoping that no one wants to pickpocket me. This morning, I even had a seat. So you can imagine my disappointment when the bus stopped at the next stop and the driver announced, "the bus is out of order, everybody off!" We were all forced to get off of the bus. Now this was even more annoying because it was a stop far away from any other stop, and there were no other buses/trains/trams that stopped there. So we were trapped there, in this random place, with nothing to do but wait and hope that another bus would come along eventually. And then the bus driver drove away, in the apparently functioning bus.

I waited and waited, and luckily a bus did come along after 15 minutes or so. But while I was waiting, people kept asking me what we should do, as if I knew something they didn't. I was nice to them, but I really don't know anything about how to get around town. So eventually I made it to work on the next bus (which was super crowded), and when I got off, one of the guys who had been asking me for directions started trying to talk to me. I've been hit on enough in France to recognize it now, thankfully. They always ask you a question (a seemingly legitimate one), then say "hey, will you talk to me?" I think that this is a really weird pick-up line, but they all say it. I just wonder if it really works for anyone. Do they seriously get girls by hitting on them on the bus? I can't imagine that there is a very high success rate.

One other thing I've noticed since I've been here is that there are a lot of women who wear traditional Muslim hijab clothing. This ranges from just a veil with long sleeves and pants to the burqa where even their eyes are covered. In the US, there are some people who wear the veil, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone in person wearing a burqa.

When I see women dressed in hijab, mostly I just think that I would hate to be wearing so much clothing in the summer heat. I mean, I can hardly stand it in my T-shirt and jeans. Also, when I see women who are wearing burqas, it's kind of eerie. They're always entirely black, and the cloth is really flowy and long. You can't see their faces at all, not even their eyes. Honestly, they remind me of dementors.
I feel racist even saying that, but that's honestly how I feel. I have no problem with people wearing whatever they want to, but it's just strange to me to see people so completely hidden. If someone were to talk to me while being entirely covered like that, I think I'd be very uncomfortable because so much of the way we communicate is non-verbal. Where do you look if you can't see someone's eyes?

Living in the US, I had a hard time understanding why the issue of the wearing of the veil was such a big deal in France, and in Europe in general. In the US, it's really not. I don't know why that is. Are there fewer Muslims in the US? I suspect that that's not really it. I think that Muslims are just better integrated into society in the US for whatever reason. I think it's interesting that even though the US has no laws concerning religious dress, it is far less common than in Europe, where there are limits on what you can wear in public buildings. And yet here in Lyon, probably 1/4 of the women I see are wearing at least a veil. It's just different, I guess.

Today, I'm still just working on the same Powerpoint as yesterday. And by that, I mean that I've been writing this blog post and researching random things on the internet. This afternoon was the presentation at the house for sick people. It was pretty uneventful. We just had them take a quiz and then we went over the answers and ate different types of cookies from different countries. It was kind of cute; they even had brownies for the US. I didn't eat one, though, because they were wrapped in plastic and looked pretty industrial.

I think I might try to go see a movie soon. There's one called "Mariage a l'Islandaise" that I'd like to see because it's from Iceland. The only problem is that I've missed both of the showtimes this week. I hope it's still playing next week!

All in all, not much to report. Things are going well here, if predictable. Although I'm kind of grateful for that. I've got enough adjusting to do as it is :)

2009-06-15T14:10:00.003-05:00

So yesterday was a disappointing day. I tried to go to church, which required waking up extra early, but no one was there. Like the doors were locked and there was literally no one. I was so sad because it took me like an hour to get there and I really wanted to go to church! This lady showed up at some point, and she was as confused as I was as to why no one was there.

I decided to take a chance and go back in the afternoon, so I did, but there was still no one there, although the door was unlocked this time. So I wasted my whole day sweating on the metro for nothing.

Yesterday night, I really wanted to talk to my family more than anything. I also wanted to just use the internet in general, since there's nothing else to do in my apartment. However, the internet wasn't working, and I was so frustrated. Luckily, it started working later in the evening, and I got to talk to my Dad for a long time, which was great, although I hope I didn't complain too much...

Today was an ordinary work day. I just edited this powerpoint done by another BYU student last summer. I'm still only halfway done. It's super long and complicated, and I'm not really sure how to make it better. Oh well. It's something to do. Tomorrow, I get to go to a home for people with AIDS and cancer and tell them about Europe. Awesome!

There has been some weird weather today. Just now, there was a huge thunderstorm that lasted for like 2 hours. The thunder was some of the loudest I've ever heard, and I've been in a lot of Midwest thunderstorms. I wasn't even scared, either. I hardly recognize myself! I've gone from being absolutely terrified of thunderstorms and living alone to being perfectly OK with both. I guess I'm learning and growing after all.

Check back tomorrow for more of my exciting life abroad.

Vaulx-en-Velin

2009-06-13T12:35:00.002-05:00

Today was a nice day. I got to sleep in late, and then I woke up and had nothing to do. I decided to watch some TV. France only has a few channels, and I only can get like 2 of them to work on my ghetto TV. So I was watching Hannah Montana on France 2. I have to say that usually I don't like dubbed TV shows because the voices are too weird, but Miley Cyrus' voice is annoying enough in English that I think I prefer the French version.

I had to go to this community fair thing in the suburbs again today, and we were supposed to give a presentation. Instead, no one came to the fair and we ended up just sitting around for two and a half hours before we decided to leave. We did talk to one guy for a while, and he took a bunch of our documents. But it was totally a waste of time.

Now I'm back at my apartment, eating goat cheese and a baguette. I have to go to bed pretty early since I have church at 9 am and it takes like an hour to get there. After church, I'm planning to go see some of the old part of town with Katharina. I'm excited for that, since my impression of Lyon so far is that it's kind of boring and industrial. It's not all that pretty. I mean, it's still cool since it's new to me, but I honestly don't find French cities to be super beautiful.

Another thing I've noticed is that Lyon is a city of immigrants. I see very few white people on a daily basis, except for at work. There are tons of Africans, North Africans, Arabs, Indians, etc. I really just noticed this today. I tried counting the number of blonds I saw, and I didn't see any. Perhaps the only blonds I've seen are the Swedish friends of the girl downstairs. This is only bad because it makes me stand out even more than I already do. I dress differently, talk differently, and act differently than the native Lyonnais do. I just wish I blended in a little more sometimes so that people wouldn't pay as much attention to me as they do. It makes me feel like a target.

However, I still like Lyon a lot. It's much less intimidating than Paris in certain ways, and it's in a beautiful region of France. I also haven't even seen the cool parts of town yet.

One thing that is lame about France is the strikes. There are going to be transportation strikes during rush hour all week. I hope it doesn't affect me getting to work. I'm not sure what I'd do if I couldn't take the bus!

And last but not least, my favorite word of the day is "la-dedans." It means roughly "inside." I just love how it sounds! La-dedans. La-dedans. La-dedans. I'll have to pronounce it for you all when I get back, because it's just awesome. Also, it's useful. It's not a new word for me, but it's just one that is only cool when French people say it.

le weekend commence

2009-06-12T13:54:00.002-05:00

Today was a fun day. I went to work and just surfed the internet for a bit, and then we left to go to this community center in the suburbs. We rode the bus all the way out there, and once we were there, it was time for lunch. They had a huge barbecue with all kinds of meat, and then because this is France, baguettes and cheese. We also had fruit tarts for dessert. It was a wonderful meal.

After that, we waited around for a long time, and eventually set up our booth for the neighborhood party. We realized as we were setting up that we had been misinformed, because we were expecting to provide information on the EU to about 100 people, but they were expecting us to have games for kids and stuff for 1000 people. Luckily, we had brought extra quizzes and some games and decorations and stuff. In the end, our booth was pretty cute and it all worked out fine. There were lots of kids who were interested in the quizzes, but mostly because they wanted a free map and they thought you had to take the quiz to get one.

The party was super fun. They even gave us free tickets to get food, so I got two free meals out of the event. I had a chocolate crepe and some french fries. I also learned the French word for cotton candy: "barbe a papa," which literally means "Daddy's beard." I thought that was funny, but I suppose it does look a little like a beard?

I really like the people I work with. Today was with Katharina and Dessi, who are from Germany and Bulgaria, respectively. They're both super nice, and I love talking to them. I love having European friends because you really get a new perspective from them. I'm starting to really like being here, now that I'm settling in and getting used to it. I'm sure that by the time I really start to get the hang of it, it will be time to leave, which is really too bad.

Tomorrow I get to sleep in, and I'm too excited. Too bad I have to work in the afternoon, though. Oh well. It's at the same Centre Social in the suburbs, so I already know how to get there at least. Plus, it's just a presentation, and Katharina is the one giving it, so I don't have much to worry about.

I might watch a movie or something tonight, since I don't have to wake up early and my parents can't talk tonight. Je pense que ca sera sympa...

Jeudi

2009-06-11T09:04:00.002-05:00

Today has been a little different than the other days this week. I still have nothing big to do, but we have a couple of presentations to give this weekend and I spent the day preparing for that. I did some research on the Union for the Mediterranean and then got all of the documents together that we're going to bring with us. It actually has ended up taking the whole day. Tomorrow morning, we're going to get here at 9 and then leave at 11 to go to this fair thing and run our booth.

We'll pretty much show up tomorrow morning, review what we're going to do, and then leave. We get to eat lunch with some volunteers and then pretty much hang out for the afternoon until the fair starts. I do have to work extra hours, but whatever. You then get to stock them up and take time off later. I also have to work Saturday.

Today I bought my transportation pass, which is good. I was tired of paying like $4 a day to get to and from work. Plus, now I can go wherever I want without having to worry about it! I also took a shower, and I now I feel all nice :)

I'm off too bed early after eating a lovely dinner of potato leek soup, a baguette with Boursin, and some organic raspberry yogurt from the Alps. It sounds a whole lot fancier than it was. Since I can't really cook, I pretty much eat anything that's ready to eat... A Demain!

Quelles sont les specialites des Etats-Unis?

2009-06-09T15:41:00.004-05:00

I thought I'd put up a picture of me and Katie in Monaco since I can't get my pictures to upload to Facebook yet.

So today I went to a French elementary school and we gave a presentation about Europe to some 9 and 10-year-olds. It was super fun! As soon as they found out I was American, the entire class gasped. They wanted to know if I'd seen Barack Obama and if I'd been to the Statue of Liberty. They asked me what kind of food we eat in America and if it's pretty there. They knew more about Obama than about most of the European stuff, and they definitely knew the American flag better than the European one. They were way too cute!

After that, we went to lunch (me, my boss, and one of the other stagiaires) and I ate a steak for the first time in my life. It was either that or some kind of lamb. I honestly thought the steak was kind of horrible and I don't think I'll ever become a fan of big chunks of meat. It was pretty awkward, too, because my boss fell asleep and stuff. But hey, it beats working.

This afternoon, I just sort of hung out and read some packets about Europe. One of the stagiaires had photoshopped his face onto a portrait of Napoleon and he was in the process of making portraits for everyone. It was quite funny.

After work, I went to try to get money to pay my rent and discovered that I must have some kind of withdrawal limit, since it wouldn't let me take out as much as I wanted. Now I have to go back tomorrow and get more money before the family remembers that I still haven't paid my rent...

Tomorrow, I'm going somewhere in Lyon for work, which is another excuse not to do anything! I'm glad.

I'm adjusting to life here, and it just gets easier every day. I still have quite a few things to do as I settle in, such as getting a transit pass, but the language is getting easier and I'm learning to adapt. I'm getting good at typing with my computer on the windowsill, and the toilets seem less gross. I even found some stuff to eat at the grocery store that I don't have to really cook (since I don't have an oven and only sort of have a stove). However, I'm still subsisting mostly on applesauce and pain au chocolat. I mean honestly, why eat anything else when you can have buttery pastries with chocolate inside?

J'ai survecu

2009-06-08T14:03:00.001-05:00

Well, I’m back in Lyon from my weekend in Nice, which was amazing. We walked around the quaint old part of town and along the beach and stuff, and it was really fun. We also went to Monaco, which was even better. It was super beautiful there! We liked it so much that we went back a second day. Plus, the beaches were small pebbles instead of huge rocks like in Nice.

Provence is really so beautiful, and I enjoyed the South a lot, but I have to just mention that southern European men are really something else. When I first got to Nice, I couldn’t get my phone to work with my new French SIM card, so I was stranded with no way to contact Katie. It took me about an hour to figure out how to get in touch with her, and in that hour, I was hit on by three different guys. All weekend we had people shouting things to us in French and asking us if we wanted to hang out with them or whatever. My favorite was a guy who said simply, “I love” in English. He loves what? He also told me that I was nice and beautiful. Like every other guy in Nice.

I really enjoyed seeing my friend Katie, too, and adjusting to France with another American was really nice. Plus, we were there with Karine, Katie’s exchange student from the time that we both did the French exchange, so we spoke French pretty much the whole weekend. All in all, it was really a great weekend and I’m glad I decided to go.

I got back yesterday (after leaving Nice at 6 am) and just moved into my apartment and tried to get settled a bit. My apartment is really nice and pretty big by French standards. It’s 3 small rooms: a kitchen/living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Although the bathroom could more correctly be called a shower room. The toilet is outside, in an outhouse. Apparently, this is very common in France. It’s not particularly dirty or anything, but because it’s outside, it smells like an outhouse. I am not excited for the hot days to come.

Today I started my internship, and it seems like it should be pretty good. Today was pretty relaxed; I mostly just met the other interns. There’s Coralie, Marie, Celine, and Julien from France; Janina and Katharina from Germany; Dessi from Bulgaria; and a guy named Veysel from Turkey who I’ll meet tomorrow. They’re all super nice! I ate lunch with Marie and worked with Katharina. Janina offered to show me around Lyon after work on Wednesday, which should be fun. The president of the Maison de l’Europe, Monsieur Hulas, seems nice enough to me, but the other interns don’t seem to like him much. I hope he’s ok?

He told me that my big assignment for the summer is to organize a conference with the United States Consulate, the French-American Association of the Rhone-Alpes Region, and the Maison de l’Europe. I have to contact both other organizations, set up the date and stuff, and then write a 20-30 page document with background information on the subject for the debate. I’m mostly nervous to call the other groups because I have a hard time understanding people on the phone and I’m really not very good at speaking French. In writing, I can take my time and ask someone to correct my mistakes. I really hope that I can handle this. It’s kind of a huge assignment. The guy last summer just had to make a powerpoint comparing the US government and the EU. Why can’t I do that?

Tomorrow morning, I’m going with Katharina and M Hulas to a school to give a presentation about Europe to 9 and 10-year-olds. I think that it will be fun because it’s different from just going to work all day, and it will be cool to see a French school and stuff.

I went grocery shopping for the first time tonight, and it was really hard because I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to buy. There were plenty of things I wanted to eat, but they were all treats, not real food. I couldn’t remember what I normally eat, too. I wanted to buy eggs, because they’re easy, but I could only find them hard-boiled. Weird, right? I ended up getting fruit, a baguette, cereal, soymilk (of course), applesauce, yogurt, and pudding. I guess I like liquids or something. I also bought this rice thing that you just have to defrost, but I ate like three bites and it was disgusting so now I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. French food is all really bland and salty and seasoned weirdly. I know it sounds crazy to complain about French food, but there are a few awesome things and then everything else is kind of gross. I’m not kidding.

I’ve been writing this post in Word because my internet only works if I literally hang my computer out of the window, and it’s been raining for a while. It’s stopped now, so I’m going to call my parents before it’s too late and then I’m going to go to bed because I have to be at work extra early to go to the school. Donc a plus!

Bienvenue

2009-06-03T12:10:00.002-05:00

Well, I've made it to France! It has been the longest day ever, and I still have some time to go, but I am here and everything seems to be coming together. I'm sitting in a family's house and wishing I could go to sleep but knowing that the mother expects me to eat dinner. Especially since I didn't want any lunch. But honestly, the time change has made me lose my appetite completely. Lunchtime felt like the middle of the night to my body. Plus, I haven't slept in like 28 hours, so I feel pretty crappy generally.

Today was kind of amazing, though, if you think about it. I hopped on a plane alone and managed to transfer between international flights, get money, navigate public transit, and meet up with the family I'm staying with. I also talked to strangers several times, and they were all incredibly friendly and helpful. Thankfully, as the day wore on and my French rapidly deteriorated, my new (and only) French friend helped me to get by. First, I went with his mom to the store, and I didn't even say anything. I just watched her and looked at all of the stuff. Then we went to the largest mall in France (which was indeed very large) to buy a SIM card for my phone. After waiting in the store for like an hour, we finally were helped and now I have a functioning French cell phone, although I did get to experience being harassed by an angry, swearing crazy guy while I was trying to pay. He was just yelling and saying a very dirty word repeatedly at anyone and everyone in the store because he had been asked for identification. Apparently this is not uncommon.

Now I am back at the maison and I am so very very sleepy. I actually just woke up because I was about to drop my laptop and I hadn't even realized I'd fallen asleep. Being in France is really weird so far, since it seems overwhelming and foreign but at the same time pretty comfortable. I think that having Mourad help me around has made a big difference, since otherwise I would have had to figure out a lot more on my own. I don't know if I could have purchased a SIM card without him, partly because I was so tired and partly because he understood details that I didn't and knew how to say all of the little technical terms I'd never used before. In short, I used to think that my French was ok, but being here has made me realize just how much fluency I lack.

One of my favorite things about foreign countries is how all of the little details of life are different. Things like road signs and electrical outlets. I loved walking through the store today and seeing all of the foods with different brands and different packaging. Coke comes in really cute little cans here!

Well, I could talk all day about my trip so far (all 24 hours of it), but I'll refrain from doing so now. Just know that all is well so far, although I still haven't heard back from the Maison de l'Europe (which worries me a great deal). I leave tomorrow morning for Nice, which is a crazy turnaround after all the traveling I've just done, but I'm excited and I think it will be a really good trip.

A bientot!

Monaco!

2009-05-31T23:41:00.004-05:00

I'm listening to Hoppípolla right now, and it is such an amazing song. I've been anxious all evening about my trip, and this song just makes everything OK. Sigur Ros is magical.

So 48 hours from now, I'll be flying across the Atlantic (past Iceland, incidentally) with about an hour left in my flight. That is so weird. Then I'll arrive at 11:15 am, find my way to my apartment, and spend the afternoon getting some things in order because I'm leaving the next morning for Nice! I'm very excited. I will get to check two more things off of my "Places to See" list: the Mediterranean Sea and Monaco.

The weather is supposed to be about 75 degrees and sunny all weekend, which will be perfect! We're going to spend some time on the beach, and we're planning a day trip to Monaco. I'm not sure what exactly one does in Nice or in Monaco, but hey, I'm going to the French Riviera! The picture above is of Monaco.

According to Wikipedia, Monaco is the world's most densely populated sovereign country, and it takes an average person 56 minutes to walk the entire width of it. It is the second smallest country in the world; only Vatican City is smaller. 84% of the population are wealthy foreign nationals who probably only live there because there are no taxes. As a Formula 1 fan, I'm excited to see the location of the Monaco Grand Prix. Apparently, the flag is also identical to Indonesia's except for the length and width. Who knew?

I'm trying to get excited for this trip because I'm actually terrified. Terrified of the flight, of having to speak French, of having to be alone. I know that it will all be fine, but it's a really big adventure for me, and I don't really like adventures. I like things to be predictable. Still, I'm going, and I'm sure it will be a great experience. And don't worry, I'll keep you posted about all of my adventures :)

Fara í burtu

2009-05-30T13:15:00.000-05:00

Well, being home is so relaxing that I never turn on my computer anymore, so I haven't been posting here or replying to emails. My Dad forced me to use my computer tonight, though, since he wanted to check that my webcam works so we can Skype while I'm in France. It does. However, I think that video chat is weird and I will only do it because it is a free and easy way to keep in touch with people. So if you want to talk to me this summer, please add me on Skype or on Gmail chat or on Facebook or something. There's always email, too, and if you send me your real-life address, I will be sure to mail you a postcard!

I think I'm pretty much ready to leave. It's very weird. I keep thinking I'm forgetting something, but I can't imagine what I would be forgetting. I've been living out of my suitcase for more than a month now, so I'm pretty sure I can do it for two more. I wish I could buy new clothes, but that's how I usually feel, whether I'm going to France or not.

I mostly wish that I had someone to go with me. I'm not afraid that I won't be able to get by, but I would be much less nervous if there were someone else there for me to go through the whole experience with. I'm confident that I'll be able to figure everything out, but there are a lot of little things that will be hard, and I'm sure there will be difficulties that I haven't foreseen. It's comforting to know that getting in touch with people back home is easy, though.

One of my good friends has been in France this school year, and she will be traveling the first weekend I'm there. She invited me to join her, but I'm not sure if I will or not. First of all, it's kind of expensive to pay for transportation and lodging, and it's a little stressful trying to plan a trip where I leave the day after I arrive. However, I have nothing really important going on for those few days since I don't start working until the next Monday. Should I go?

I have two more days at home. Crazy!!

Topic 1: Hair

2009-05-23T13:19:00.003-05:00

My life is extraordinarily dull.

Yesterday, I cut about 8 inches off of my hair. It's strange how light my head feels now, but I'm surprisingly content with the results. Usually haircuts take me weeks to get used to.

Also, I knew that I was no longer in Utah when the colorist expressed surprise at how blond my hair naturally is. She said she rarely sees natural blonds. If I tried to claim that I was a natural blond in Utah, people would think that I was crazy. It's true, however! My hair is definitely not brown, it is merely so ashy that people can't tell it's blond. I usually just tell people it's naturally gray and/or colorless, which is pretty accurate.

Hair! One of my favorite topics.

Also, I've been reading a lot of news magazines, and I have come up with a proposition relating to oil prices. I read that oil companies (and everyone who knows anything) believe that there will be another spike in oil prices once developed countries' economies recover. However, because oil prices are currently low, Americans are not choosing to conserve fuel like they were last summer, which would help to lower American dependency on oil and minimize the pain caused by another sharp spike in oil prices.

Also, because of the economic downturn, many municipalities are suffering from lower tax revenue (California being the most pronounced example). Federal roads are going without repairs and many worthy institutions are not receiving funds. I propose that the Federal (and local) governments should significantly raise fuel taxes. While this move would be unpopular, it would remedy both of these serious problems. It would also be a good complement to the new legislation that requires auto manufacturers to create more fuel-efficient cars. If gas prices were a little higher, it would encourage new car buyers to consider fuel efficiency when making a purchase.

Lastly, I know someone with the H1N1 flu virus! This is only unfortunate because my mother is now convinced that I have it because I have a sore throat. I suspect that the common cold is a more likely cause.

j'm manger

2009-05-19T01:10:00.000-05:00

I still have plans for a real post, but I've been too lazy.

I just watched some Harry Potter trailers, and I'm so excited for the movie to come out! It will be while I'm in France, but that will only make it a more memorable experience. I wonder if they dub it or if they just have subtitles? Probably both.

I've been home for a little while now, and I've remembered how annoying Chicagoans can be. The accent makes everyone sound stupid. However, the food more than makes up for that. I've been to Portillo's and my favorite taco place and I'm planning trips to the Thai place and perhaps even Lou Malnati's. If we have a chance, I'd like to try the Moroccan and Ethiopian restaurants in the area. I've never been. I really like food, and there are a lot of great restaurants around here.

I'm going shopping demain, and I'm excited. I haven't bought new clothes in, like, a year.

YouTube

2009-05-16T13:31:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I forget that I like YouTube. I'm not always very amused by the popular viral videos, but there are many videos that I absolutely love. I'm posting a bunch of my favorites here, mostly for myself so that I can remember what they are.

First of all, this song is like a direct translation of how my brain works. American-accented Franglais that hardly makes sense in either language.

Here's another version of the same song, only at the Eurovision contest! I particularly love the guy in the pink.

This one is only funny if you understand French, but he's a kind of French Weird Al who makes fun of popular music.

Here's another one by Fatal Bazooka, but this one is more funny for English speakers. The title translates as "Talk to the Hand." You can see the parody just from the video, and there's a rough translation on the YouTube description.

In keeping with the European tradition, I have to post some Eurovision favorites. Here's one by Lordi, a Finnish band. They won with this song. As he says, "it's the rock-alypse" and the "day of rock-ening." Deep stuff.
I can't embed this one, but believe me, it's worth clicking on.

Next is Verka Serduchka, the Ukranian nominee. He is, in fact, a man. He is also singing "seven, seven, ???, seven, seven, one, two, seven, seven, one, two, three" in German? Additionally, he won 2nd place.

Because of my affinity for Iceland, I just have to post this one, too. Too bad they didn't make it farther in the competition...

Here's a great Turkish video:

I like Tarkan :)

I find this hilarious.

Too many videos! And all of them are European-themed. Quelle coincidence...

Politics.

2009-05-15T23:57:00.000-05:00

As a French major, I spend a lot of time studying France. I am particularly interested in the political history of France, and as such, I make a point of being informed about the French political system. I also like to be informed about politics in the US, since I live here and I like to know what is going on.

Because I take the time to learn about and understand current events, I expect that others would do the same. However, I am constantly disappointed by people's lack of knowledge about even the most significant political events. Still, people like to talk about politics, and because I find politics so interesting, I can't help but join in on conversations about current events. This gets me in trouble sometimes for a couple of reasons. First of all, I like to be contrary. Secondly, I know a lot and don't like to let people get away with being wrong.

Being contrary is a terrible habit of mine. I think that it stems from the fact that I don't like it when people hold strong opinions without understanding all of the relevant information. Therefore, when talking with someone, I feel like I have to argue the opposite position in order to point out all of the weaknesses in his or her opinion, even if I agree. This often ends badly, as I have ended up promoting ideologies with which I disagree and appearing to be far more radical than I am, which alienates people.

Also, when I start talking about an issue that I am very familiar with, I absolutely cannot let other people's ignorance go unmentioned. This is bad. I appear impolite and domineering, I'm afraid, but I just hate to see people spreading falsehoods about something I feel strongly about. This impulse is particularly strong when I'm talking about anything related to France, or when someone insinuates that France is somehow inferior to the US. Lately, I've been hearing variants of this a lot because Utah is a very conservative place, and many people consider Obama to be a socialist. Let me explain why this is so irritating to me.

Obama is not a socialist. America is not turning socialist. It never will. There are many reasons for this, which I will not list, but it is sufficient to say that the limits on executive power (not to mention public opinion) in the US would never allow Obama to change the way the country is run in any truly significant way. He may be promoting social programs and a bigger government, but he is not in any way advocating socialism. Also, socialism is not a bad thing! Whether or not you agree with it, there is nothing inherently wrong with socialism. It is simply a political ideology, just like Republicanism or Democracy.

This leads to my next point: France is not inherently inferior to the US just because its government is a social democracy. In fact, socialist policies are quite successful in France, and are even better in Scandinavia. These countries have some of the world's happiest people and function just as well as, if not better than, capitalist America. I absolutely hate the insinuation that France is stupid because it is full of crazy socialists who are lazy and just live to take advantage of government programs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to promote socialism here. In fact, I tend to be much more of a free-market liberal (in the classical sense of the term). I don't think that France's government would work in the US. I do, however, think that it is interesting to see how things are done differently in Europe, and I think that Americans could learn a lot if they would take the time to understand how different models of government work.

Now that I've been up on my soapbox for this super long post, I'll post this link to the article in The Economist that inspired this little rant. It's very fair, I think, since it explains both the benefits and the problems with the French model. And for those who are wondering, The Economist is a very pro-free-market publication. It's a product of the Anglo-Saxon tradition, so an endorsement of France's system is real news...

Victory Rose

2009-05-15T00:50:00.001-05:00

I was looking through my pictures from the past year and I stumbled across a bunch of videos that I took at the Sigur Ros concert. I put a few pictures on Facebook, but I never bothered with the videos for some reason. I thought I'd put a few up here while I'm thinking about it. Sorry about the quality; they were just taken on my camera. Also, I plan to write a real post one of these days...

Hoppipolla intro

More Hoppipolla...

Saeglopur

Untitled #8 (Popplagid)

Enjoy :)

Rien a dire

2009-05-08T20:13:00.000-05:00

I leave on Tuesday, and as such, I've been preparing for my departure by spending as much time as possible with those whose company I enjoy. This means that I have been slightly busy doing things such as sitting on couches. This weekend is rapidly filling up, and I am glad because when I'm sitting around at my grandparent's house, I feel like I'm wasting my time. Here is the plan:
Friday night: See Lacey and Chelsea.
Saturday Morning: Shower.
Noon: Mother's Day Luncheon (it is very important to my Grandmother that I attend this)
Afternoon: Bethany?
Evening: Talk to Will (he found my pseudo-intellectual generalizations about modern Europe interesting and now wants to talk to me more?)
Sunday Morning: Church?
Afternoon: Perhaps Church?
Evening: Sunday Dinner, followed by a Jean-Jacques Rousseau-themed dinner chez Liel
Monday: ??

Parfum

2009-05-05T13:58:00.000-05:00

Interesting article about Iceland in The Economist today. I love that magazine.

I also love dinosaur comics, and this website mixes together random panels to create some strange Dinosaur Comics Remixes.

Here is my story of the day: I put on perfume yesterday, as usual, but later in the day than I normally do because I didn't get ready until the afternoon. I also used my Prada perfume, which I haven't been wearing recently because I've been so in love with Betsey Johnson. I forgot how long the Prada scent lasts! I also didn't remember how strong it was.

Here is the description of this scent that I found online, so that you can pretend to be smelling it along with me:

"Prada brings its unique fusion of tradition and innovation to the world of fragrance, reinventing the ancient art of perfumery by creating a fragrance of yesterday and tomorrow, a scent inspired by the past, that embodies the future. It is a fragrance that entwines memory, reality, and possibility. Style: Classic. Pure. Addictive."

Can you smell it now?

So I went to see some friends hours after applying this "scent that embodies the future" and apparently it was still so strong that people could smell it from across the room. I personally hate being able to smell other people's perfumes, so I was actually quite embarrassed by that. It's now been nearly 24 hours since I applied the fragrance, and I can still smell it on me. Thankfully it's not quite as strong, but it's definitely there. In contrast, Betsey Johnson perfume wears off after about an hour, which is pretty typical. I'm going to keep track of how long I can still consistently smell it. Will it be multiple days? Who knows. I guess this literally is "a fragrance of yesterday and tomorrow."

I'm babysitting my baby cousin right now and she is asleep. It's very quiet now. Perhaps I'll go read?

l'ennui

2009-05-04T13:23:00.000-05:00

I have so much free time to spend on the internet these days. It's kind of nice, but I keep running out of things to do online, which never happens to me.

I started reading a book that I think I'll actually finish! Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky. It's interesting and not too long, which sounds good for someone with the attention span of a two-year-old.

I leave in a week, and there are things that I need to do before then, but I don't really want to.
a) find a research topic for my trip to France
b) return some books to campus
c) I don't remember what else

I don't really have anything to say. My blog is a medium through which I can talk about myself and my opinions without having to worry about whether anyone cares.

Le Dormeur du Val

2009-05-03T17:31:00.000-05:00

Today I fainted during church. It was the first time in quite a while. Fortunately, there was a couch outside of the Relief Society room that I made it to in time to avoid embarrassment or injury. I guess I forgot that people with low blood sugar probably shouldn't fast until 4 pm.

J'ai peur de vieillir.

I've been looking for this poem for a few days now:

C'est un trou de verdure où chante une rivière
Accrochant follement aux herbes des haillons
D'argent; où le soleil de la montagne fière,
Luit; C'est un petit val qui mousse de rayons.

Un soldat jeune bouche ouverte, tête nue,
Et la nuque baignant dans le frais cresson bleu,
Dort; il est étendu dans l'herbe, sous la nue,
Pale dans son lit vert où la lumière pleut.

Les pieds dans les glaïeuls, il dort. Souriant comme
Sourirait un enfant malade, il fait un somme:
Nature, berce-le chaudement: il a froid.

Les parfums ne font plus frissonner sa narine;
Il dort dans le soleil, la main sur sa poitrine
Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au coté droit.

Arthur Rimbaud

Pourquoi la vie est-elle si belle?

2009-05-02T17:24:00.000-05:00

The rain today was so nice. The mountains reminded me of Iceland.

J'ai rencontré quelques gars aujourd'hui, et je ne les ai pas beaucoup aimés. J'ai aussi vu un film qui était tellement stupide que je ne pouvais pas en attendre la fin. J'espère que si j'écris en français, les gens ne vont pas savoir que ma vie est si ennuyeuse.

J'espère lire un nouveau livre bientôt. Je voulais le lire aujourd'hui, mais mon amie m'a demandé d'aller au cinéma avec lui car elle ne voulait pas y aller seule avec ces gars gênants. Maintenant, je dois aller chez ma tante pour voir ma petite cousine qui va à Prom ce soir.

J'aimerais bien savoir mieux écrire.

Hoppipolla

2009-05-01T13:27:00.000-05:00

I love this song. It makes me so happy every time I hear it.

I've been staying with my grandparents for about week, and it's been pretty nice. We spend a lot of time watching crime dramas on TV, eating (at least I do), and playing with my baby cousin, Lily. It's very quiet and relaxing, which is so nice after a very busy (and generally noisy) end of the semester.

I finally have specific dates for my trip to France! This is pretty big news. I only have a few weeks left, and I'm getting more excited and nervous every day. I'm nervous just because I have no idea what to expect, but the excitement is starting to build as it gets closer. I looked up where I'll be living on google maps, and with the street view feature, I have a pretty good idea of what it will be like. I love modern technology. I even mapped out how I will walk to work every day. It should take approximately 31 minutes on foot, in case you wanted to know that.

I'm glad I decided to stay here a little longer. I'm afraid my mother is not, but I figured that if I have a few weeks to do nothing, I might as well spend part of it with friends and part of it with family. I've been having a really good time, too. I've seen my friends every day this week, so it's only a little different from living closer to campus.

Also, I attended an Icelandic conversation class yesterday, which was really nice. We actually discussed grammar briefly, and it was arguably the most exciting part of my week. I realized that I've never understood Icelandic grammar well, which is why I still feel like I can't form basic sentences after three semesters studying it.

Since I have so much free time, I've been trying to read some good books, but either I've lost the ability to focus on anything (which is probably true) or else I haven't found a book that I want to read. I've started reading:
- The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt
- Paradise Lost
- The Hound of the Baskervilles
- Cuisine Minceur
- Cultural Misunderstandings: The French-American Experience
These are all very different, and yet I don't really have the desire to finish any of them. Maybe I've developed adult ADD? I even get bored during television shows. I don't think that's normal.

I can't resist:

2009-04-24T12:36:00.000-05:00

I'm moving out tomorrow. I still don't have anywhere to stay, so I guess I'm homeless. Luckily, I have friends.

I went to Spark last night with one of my roommates and her awkward friend. He was very strange and I was kind of rude to him, mostly because I was so tired. I wish she wouldn't have dragged me along on her awkward date.