. reverse culture shock

HELLO ALL! I'm back in the States & I've been on kind of a high. In Paris I've been craving Korean food, snow, and seeing familiar faces. Right now everything's on overload!

As soon as I came home, I had spicy Korean food, which my stomach wasn't used to! I had heartburn because pretty much everything I ate was mild in Paris ;) Although most of the snow melted, I still loved seeing patches of snow here and there. Even the SMELL of winter, seeing stars, and being in a MALL put a huge smile on my face.

But there's also a bit of reverse culture shock too:
- The automatic impulse to say "Pardon" and "Bonjour" to people... and how I greeted someone at JFK only to get "Wussup" back
- Not being familiar with recent news or songs on the radio
- Forgetting that I have to tip and dealing with American currency again (but the joy in realizing that the prices are in USD and not Euros!)

I hung out with my high school friends today and I ran into Char at the mall! That was an awesome coincidence =) And I think I found my apartment in Boston so I'm really happy! Although I can't go out and go crazy for New Years, I'll be spending time with my extended family at our house party! wooot!

That's all for now. I'll post more if I come up with anything!

. leaving on a jet plane

I'm currently sitting in a cafe near Notre Dame on my last full day in Paris so I'll reflect a bit.

What I love about Paris:
. amazing baguettes
. the awesome ways they eat yummy cheese
. their faux-Mex beer and the availability of Belgian beer
. interesting art and museums
. gorgeous historical architecture
. the Metros that tell you when the next two trains are coming
. tip is included
. chance to practice speaking French
. accesibility to travel to other countries
. good looking guys ;]

What I didn't like:
. how hard it was to meet French people
. AUP enough said
. poop poop poop on the streets
. cigarette smoke
. lack of service usually
. no internet
. stores closing early and on Sundays

All in all Paris was great and anyone would love living here. I think I've had a great 4 months and now I can't wait to go back to NJ and Boston after a year!

Best of:
Raclette - Le Serpent Qui Danse @ Faidherbe Chaligny / cheese you actually scrape onto plenty of food and an amazing old man waiter
Fondue - Refuge des Fondus @ Abesses / serves wine in baby bottles, fun atmosphere and interesting waiter.. says Northeatern 2012 in the bathroom :/
Onion soup - Cafe Central SOMETIMES on Rue Cler near AUP OR La Marmite @ Pigalle
Bread - pain Max from Julien the boulangerie on Rue Jean Nicot- it's heavenlyyy and everyone wants to make babies with it
Falafel - Rue des Roisiers in Le Marais
Fave museum - Invalides which is the World wars museum and holds Napoleons tomb

Hot chocolate - Angelina's near Concorde (on the list of 1000 things to do before you die)

I can't wait to go back to
- Tabasco sauce
- Netflix / internet / TV
- moms cooking and family
- Thai and Mexican food
- cleaner air

OMG I'm coming home!!!!! And I'm coming back with 1 broken camera and two messed up mp3 players :**[ US and A here I come!!! Oh but I won't be away from Europe too long as IBWE 09 is in Italy!!!!!! Ciaoooo!!!

. au revoir

Ahhh my time is almost up in Paris! I just dropped Lindsay off at the airport so she could go to Ohioooooo. I decided not to go home early, because I wanted to spend as much time as possible in Paris, but now I'm so excited to go home!! I miss a lot of things even though I love Paris (not really AUP).

Some things I did with the gang:

• Saw the Montparnasse Tower- it really is ugly
• Went up the Eiffel (but only to the 2nd floor) - the elevator is so scary =( I have post-traumatic stress from the Tower of Terror!
• Went to the Grande Arche aka "Future Paris" because all the buildings look so strange and high-tech
• Pompidou museum - got to see a real live Magritte!
• The Louvre again- I saw wings I hadn't seen before
• Met up with Sunny & Jeremy and had tapas at a nice place in Le Marais (Somethingsomething Pablo is the name HAHAH)
• The Catacombs - it's INSANE in there... so many dead people =/ and the fact that their remains were 'aligned' in rows... crosses... hearts... columns... is really really creepy
  
• etc etc. We basically ate a lot, laughed a lot, some were injured coughDevisagimp.

Speaking of Dev who only posted ONCE on his blog- Ohio, Leann, and I went to pick him up at the airport and he was NOT where he was supposed to be. I managed to contact him by phone for all of 5 seconds before it cut us both off so I couldn't contact him again for some reason. Basically we wandered the airport, getting police involved for 2.5 hours, assuming that Dev would not leave the airport and take a train into Paris! Finally I checked online and he left me a fb wallpost saying he was in PARIS! omgg crafty little bugger. Basically a cabride home from CDG airport = 50 EUROS. If you can avoid it- DONT DO IT!!! But we couldn't be mad at him for long, because he had an injury and we had to take him to a general practitioner.

Uhhh what else to mention?
- Oh, it's SO hard finding an apartment while being away from Boston! I'm still struggling to find a place...
- Um always be sure to have a metro ticket... I did "sharesies" with Ohio right before I'm about to leave Paris and I FINALLY run into those RATP people that check for tickets!!! Luckily I had an unused ticket so my 40 EUR fine was lowered to 25 =*****( W T F.
- Aaaand a lot of stuff are closed after Christmas until the first so basically I can only do one thing today to round out my trip (Musee d'Orsay?)

I'll post later with a recap of what's good in Paris and comparisons of US & France!


Memories...because I'll forget:
Hugh Jeckmen / meggik / "Nice bobbypin..." / GIMP / absess-abesses / AIIIIIIR POLLUTION! / Would you rather... / Signs, storytelling, movie games / Raspberry beer - Lindemanns is soooo good! / singing everywhere / magicknifing / jasmine city / gushy stuff = "squishy ass" according to Jay-Z / and moreeeee!

SOOOOOZZ AHNNNNN IM COMING HOME!!!!

. terrorism

Ummm yikes... bikes! Lindsay Massau is here in Paris!! Soon we'll be joined by Leann, Devinson, and Sunny!

But today I read in the news and heard from a friend that there was a bomb threat at Printemps on Boulevard Haussman which is a department store shopping area o___O Basically some group that the French Police were not aware of called in their threat, and it turned out they planted 5 dynamites in the building-- but supposedly there was no chance of them exploding...

Uh.... still. It's really scary, because the other day on the Champs Elysees there were a whole bunch of French riot cops blocking part of the street and telling people to keep on moving... There was also a hugeee jewelry heist at Harry Winston on Avenue Montaigne right off of the Champs... SCARY.

Yeah, I'm going to try not to think about it....

1 Final finished!
1 Final finished and ready to go!
1 Final almost finished but not feeling too good about it!
1 Final in progress!

WOOT!

. Mexico in Paris!

It's Reading Week, meaning that FINALS are coming up! While I have something to dread, I also have something to look forward to-- LINDSAY / DEVINSON / LEANN / and SUNNY are coming to Paris!!! WOOT! BSIB REUNIONNN! I'm sooo excited ;)

Some things I have to show them:

• Invalides - has a really interesting World Wars museum & Napoleon's tomb
• Arc de Triomphe - the Champs Elysees is really lit up right now for the holidays, it's so cute!
• Eiffel Tower - of course!
• Sacre Coeur - & try not to get mugged this time
• Latin Quarter & Bastille - lots of bars & fondue
• Faidherbe Chaligny - home of my favorite raclette restaurant
• Musee d'Orsay - I haven't been yet!
• Pompidou - Haven't been there either!
• Angelina's - on Rue Rivoli where the best hot chocolate is supposedly served w/ whipped cream!
• & I'll wing the rest =]

Anywhoo, I'm off to Reims tomorrow to shoot my movie for my final. I really enjoyed the Prin. of Video Production class- it was definitely my favorite and I learned the most. My prof is really cool (& cute!)

Yesterday I went to the Objectivites from Dusseldorf photo show in the Musee d'Art Moderne & got in free with my Art History card (woot!) It was pretty interesting... some interesting photos, but overall not the best show I've ever seen. I caught a glimpse of the Dufy show which was a HUGE room that was all painted, it was sooo cool.. The Musee d'Art had a really nice view so I'm gonna go back and take pics when the weather is nice.

Speaking of which, the weather sucks. Can't wait to go back home!!