5+

see? i'm happy!


un petit voiture! how cute :)
i wish i could have made it more real to you but i was slow with the lens... :( je suis desolee


so, for all those people (comme moi) who had no idea that paris has highways.....it does!


...you'll catch on eventually, but i really think these endless stairs in the middle of nowhere are pretty darn cool (refer back to my silly happy face above for how i feel about the stairs)


je crois que cette photo ici m'aide avec mon image de paris comme un petit ville, tres jolie, mais vraiment...c'est grande!
(i believe this photo lends to my idea of paris as a tiny little cute town, but actually, it's pretty GiNormous!

and then there were five more...

Beautiful Hibo after our WONDERFUL meal prepared by Lauri and Amal at Val and Lauri's apt...before we went out and partied like rockstars!


One half of the top of the opera house!...right off the metro stop for OPERA (c'est la meme mot en francais!)


ok, so i know this looks just like regular cobblestones...but it's not
it's PARISIAN cobblestone...and i'm convinced there's something special about it, because it's EVERYWHERE...course i haven't yet tried to walk on it in stilettos...and luckily i only brought one pair :) (thanks lindsey, aisha and serena)


my new friend charlotta (from finland) at her favorite cafe off the pigalle stop at le gare (train station)...i had vin chaud (Margaret...i must do better!)


c'est mon ami terence...it's terence, my friend who i'm staying with
see that place just above his head? that's a bunk bed-where i sleep
and see that handle to his back? looks like the wall...the handle without the green bag? that's the bathroom...toilet et une douche (shower)
c'est ca! plus simple!

Blogger est actuellement indisponsable!!!

Ehh alors!

So I (must) started to write this blog in the body of an email, and then re-post it to the actual BLOG.
Je suis desolee (i am sorry)

I have a few very important happenings i need to share with you all and i didn't want to forget any of them, so here i go:
TODAY was wonderful and sad all at once
ohh....so i'm in conversation avec mon ami florence maintenant and she just reminded me that STA travel (the way i got here) cuts off at age 2.
And their tickets are really pretty cheap (trop marche) so if you have any plans of traveling for cheap and you're UNDER 26, take a look
This is NOT an ad for you to come visit me (necessarily)...i'll be sure to take a pic of mon chambre (room) so you understand how serious it is

Anyway, check STA
So....back to today
it was sad outside because it was a little rainy
i had hardly been able to wake up this morning
as in i COULDN'T get up
my body wouldn't agree with the little bit of light outside
so i went back to sleep after i left my bed
on my makeshift couch/terence's mattress
he had left--that's never motivation for me to get up either

so i slept for a while today
but to my credit we had stayed up late last night
3 something i think
anyway, when i finally got up i listened to some song by jill scott from her live cd--which i just GOT from my friend
anyway, the song was "gotta get up"
i know i'm plus tard (late), but pardonnez-moi s'il vous plait (if you please)
anyway so the song must have really inspired me (cause i played it several times) but also because i wrote my own song when i was in the shower
i think i'll post it on my myspace page...maybe not today, but still here it is, in case you don't know of it (myspace.com/arinmayamusic)
i was very happy with the song--if you hear it, let me know what you think
anyway, so once i did finally get OUT of the room, here are the things i did:

1ere/1st-I went to alliance francaise, where i was just on time (god's grace) to take a placement exam...i placed into the level B1, which is supposedly intermediate or something--YAY
je commence la semaine prochaine (i start next week)
i'll be taking only oral classes at the beginning, on wednesdays and fridays (two weeks at first) for 3 hours each day, so 6 hours par semaine
i think that's not such a bad idea--and it made me VERY happy

2eme/2nd-I was walking around after paying for the class, feeling very accomplished...i was taking pictures with the camera with b+w film...then i saw a sign i should have photographed (and will do later) reminding me of the bibliotheque (that's right...library) down the street that i wanted badly to visit...i have been itching to get a library card and have the liberty to get and read books in french!
alors!
so i went, asked for a carte/card, and got one!
how easy and wonderful!!!! i got four books, including one of my favorites: the handmaid's tale, by margaret atwood--i'm excited to try to read it in french

3eme/3rd-i felt so glad and proud (and needed a bag/sac to carry my books in) so i bought some pretty bread, picture forthcoming, and my first REAL croissant! (sorry margaret, i forgot to take a pic before i ate it...next time)

(there's more that happened, but that's the weirder part of my day, including a random guy who thought it'd be nice to follow me a bit, pleading me in french to pay attention to him, following which i let him buy me dinner...read: fast food (lol, it's what i get), and then gave him the wrong number. JE CONNAIS--c'est pas la meilleure chose a faire ici, mais qu'est ce que je peux faire??!?....I KNOW--it's not the best thing to do here, but what am i to do??!?.......when i finally ditched him, and i mean that with all genuineness, i got on the 1st of 3 trains it would take me to get home (because i just wanted to get away from his and his discomfort--it wasn't all bad but by the end i was glad to be going) and on the 2nd train i found this absolutely adorable man, who kept looking and smiling at me :) and who i got off the train with, after he kindly, though subtly let me know his stop was next--how polite!--and gave my real number. i'm certain he's older than me, but only in the way every other man i've dated in the past year has been... :)...then i finally made it back home, after having to wait for my roomie, tant pis! (too bad) and tried my best to be nice to the guy who's great except for bad body odeur--ughhh....some things just can't be ignored..........au revoir stinky man!)
ahhhh paris!

trying again...

tour d'eiffel across the way


moi--by myself having dinner on the 1st sunday...i was "very happy to be here" :)


Sacre-Coeur!!! Wow...gorgeous and huge
you gotta wonder how they get all that detail into all that high space. What a way to worship....


cool steps...that's it


heading out the door to party like a...rock star!!!

ok
more later...this machine is giving me headache...mal á tete

Les photos!!!

I don't know if my photos are gonna show up but I'll see in a sec...

ok. so we're having some technical issues here but i'll get something (un-needing of rotation) up here soon...
pray with me :)
also, in case you don't mind a 90 degree rotation of your head to the left, this pic was taken from the street by Sacre-Coeur and yes, that is indeed Le Tour D'Eiffel...also known as the Eiffel Tower

check back soon--a bientot!

On Worrying...

Just now, I said to my friend Terence, with whom I'm rooming here in Paris (after thinking about it for just a sec, and after tapping him and looking up from my makeshift couch with doe eyes, or as best I could muster with sleep crust therein): "Every now and then, I need a hug," to which he responded by giving me a rightful hug.

Hugs, for me, and spirit lifting. And in times when my mind has gotten something close to the best of me, for reasons of stress, things outside of my control, and momentary faithlessness, I try my best to stay positive but it doesn't always work.

Just now, however, what happened inside was that I had a moment of brilliance. I thought--"It's gonna work out." And I think what caused me to know that was that it always HAS worked out. God has ALWAYS worked it out for me. No matter whether His working "it"--no matter the "it"--out looked just like what I thought it would, or like Rev assured the congregation during my last visit home, better, and so as to make ME look good/BETTER than i would have on my own...God is ALWAYS working things out to His will. And God, it feels good to trust in that. So much better to trust His will than my own confused, convoluted one.

To confirm this brilliance I experienced. To solidify that all was well, I wanted to reach out and touch another believer--in agreement, I suppose. I didn't really have to explain why I needed a hug to Terence, though. All I had to do was say what I needed, and there he was with arms ready and welcome.

And I appreciated that.
I'm so thankful.

There is no space for doubters where I live. No space for "what if it doesn't work out??"
Because that condition doesn't exist.
Several "what ifs" are, or can be considered...but never that one. Because my God is greater.

from dream chaser...

:)
j'aime mon nouvelle nom
(i like my new name)

Thanks TINA!!!
i have to learn how to say that in french

ummm...i just wanted to send some love out to everybody who's supportive (even if a bit skeptical) of this journey i'm on
you make me smile and shine
i'm sure your love for me is what's bringing all these wonderful (even if not quite perfect) people my way

we're not God--i guess we're a little excused from perfection
...so i forgot exactly what i was going to say here, which sucks because i know you guys hate when i write too much anyway....

i go now
je dois partir maintenant

au revoir,
Arin

Hier Soir...as in last night

and when i say last night, i mean Saturday night
...I partied
...
...
...
like a rock star
(which i believe translates as "comme un rock star" in french)

Thank you/Merci Beaucoup,
Arin

...oh, and today (aujourd'hui) i sat around comme un bum (sorry if that's politically incorrect) mainly emailing, talking with friends online (which is a LOT of my time these days), thinking about who I would love to marry and the poetry I've written about him (whoever he is)...
today i realized that i may need to get an organizer, as in keep track of dates

that kind of makes me sad
it would remind me a lot of my life in nyc, or at home at all
but this guy (the one who i hung out with the other night who...wait...how much of this can i say on my blog...?)
well anyway, i think i may have accidentally stood this guy up theoretically
oops
je suis desolee paul!
he called me late tonight--he doesn't speak english either
(il ne parle aucune l'anglais)
and he said something like "weren't you supposed to call me?"
or maybe he said...ok
see i actuellement have NO idea (aucune idee) what he said
he's a nice guy
but like i said, i've been bumming it all day
didn't really feel like interrupting that with PLANS

the fix: we'll get together on friday
i met a guy last night (from bordeaux with pretty bad teeth, but really sweet and actuellement a good dancer...and a radio DJ, so he knows cool music too) who i'm supposed to get together with demain (tomorrow)
we will see--nous voyerons

i think that's all for now
don't want to overwhelm you/bore you babies
gros bisous!
((fat?) kisses!)

a bientot--talk soon....

Pardonnez-moi

for just a second
i know this is the second post for today but bear with me
is it a function of fear that keeps americans in america?
i'm a little troubled for just a second right now
i've spent the majority of my day with wonderful women from all around
somalia, london, toronto, amsterdam, ukraine, etc
i want to be fabulous!

not that i don't love my mama and daddy and everyone on the outskirts too...friends, extensions...all of it
but i just think we've got to do a better job at getting out of our own ways. the world is too big to stay in one place. to not have at least seen so many beautiful things, places, people.
take pictures, obtain memories, smile, enjoy something more than your living room people.
learn a language more than english.
those who have read my poetry will have a bit of a harder time je pense from know on. because i will be inserting any language i can get my tongue wrapped around.

it's sad i think, to be so engulfed in our own thieving culture that we forget what got us there.
i'm ready, are you?
je suis pret? et tu?

Aujourd'hui=Today

Today,
I'm going to meet a friend of a friend, Valerie.
We'll meet in center city and I don't know what we'll do, but she's really nice, as we've spoken a couple of times already. She speaks english which is nice, but I must say (je dois dire) that I think I'm lazy.
Additionally, I was thinking the other day (after reading a few pages of Eat, Love, Pray) about what I like and don't like, and how it's important to me right now to identify these things, so that I can come as close to doing the things I like, or at least the things that are tolerable, as opposed to just doing whatever and being less than pleased with the outcome.
I think the exercise is good for us all.
I'll love to hear what you do that you actually like, and what you don't like, and what things you don't like that are tolerable, versus the things you really really can't stand to do, and you yourself don't even understand why you make yourself available for those things.
I'll be waiting...

One last thing-just before I left NYC, my cousin, Serena, moved in. I am in love with her. She's one of those distant family members who I've never really had the chance to sit with and get to know over the course of a week that was just there to spare. (By the way, the concept of time to spare is really amazing if you sit and enjoy it. Try it sometimes. I think you'll love yourself for having done it.)
Anyway during the time when Serena and I were identifying the kindredness of our spirits, she kind of mentioned how i better not ever have my "talented" hands idle...or something like that, just based on what few things she saw that I'd crocheted/knit.
I mention this because her words inspired me and I'm really excited to have seen (in a thrift store in Paris!) the other day [l'autre jour] a small purse whose design I'm right now [maintenant] working to re-create.
Pray with and for me--I'll do the same for you [la meme pour vous].

Avec amour et beaucoup de bisous,
Arin
(With love and many kisses,
Arin)

;)

et pour les photos...

comme j'ai dit, je utiliser le film pour prendre les photos
like i said, i'm using film to take pics
mais, j'ai aussi mon affiche digital
but, i also have my digital camera
donc, quand j'ai plus des photos, je mettrerai celui-ici
so, when i have more photos, i'll put them up here

je t'adore beaucoup!
love you much!

ahh oui, ET, tu peut voir ce website ici pour traduiser mes blogs
ahhh yes, AND, you can look at this website here to translate my blogs
here

Ahh oui...you don't like my franglish, ehhh?

Well, well, well...
it appears to be le cas (seriously, si you can't get the words that are the same/la meme dans les autre langues...!) that a lot of people n'aime pas my franglish
i mean...je suis a france!
what would you have me faire?

ok ok ok
since i got so many wonderful repondres, je will try to tone down the franglish dans cette blog
mais, i hope que you will at least try to read (lire) as much as tu can
parce que these words are for vous
je promis!

today was something of an adventure
i FINALEMENT woke up avant noon!
how wonderful :)
i want to say it was jet lag, but I don't know if i can really put all that weight on one avion (AIRPLANE)
oui

anyway, i think i can officially say i'm comme mon ami terence with whom i am staying
he's an english teacher here at nanterre universite
et he got into the program i got rejected from
ahh yes, the old hook and sinker
mais je ne connais pas if that's what they meant by hook and sinker
(i just learned those lyrics in some song during my childhood and figured they fit ici-la)

ainsi, je suis un professor d'anglais now because i said so (because i said so GREAT movie starring dianne [sp?] keaton and mandy moore {who i LOVE!}--check it out)...i would hyperlink a page for you, but je suis fatiguee and i actually have somewhere to be en ce matin :)

donc, i got up this morning, went back to sleep pour 1 hour and then got up for real
did something (God knows what) sur mon ordinateur (work with me people...that's french for computer :)) and then started my day's preparations
next time i'll take a picture of all the steps it takes me en ce matin pour preparer departir
i got up around 9:50am after realizing that laying down with my yeux closed even though i was conscious doesn't compte pour getting up
after "working" sur mon ordinateur, c'etait pres de 11 o'clock
and i know it may SEEM like a longtemps, mais i was ready to partir (by the way, you should know that sometimes, i'm having to misuse the language for the sake of inroducing you avid readers to it's wonderfulness, so if you vraiment want to learn it, by all means, please prendre un cours)

now, where was i?
ahhh, oui...closer to the point/s of my jour
(jour is like jour-ney, but the french say journee, like bonne journee!)
you'll catch on :)

so, yes, i left the chambre (chamber of secrets...room of secrets...?) around 12:15, and hour after i started getting ready
but here's the kicker, or the commencement of the kickers

si tu me connais, you know i don't wear makeup
maybe my lips and on a night out, mascara and some eyes
i MIGHT even throw on some blush on a good day/nuit
today i applique le maquillage (yes, makeup)
ok...really it was just eyeshadow
(this $0.75 purple eyeshadow i got from TJMaxx from Australie avec ma mere)
was i wearing any purple? of course not
and bien sur i had already chosen a pair of earrings that didn't at all lend themselves to my good feeling, paired with my purple eyeshadow
so i had to change my earrings
the eyeshadow and the earring dilemma are what caused the extra 15 minutes previous to my leaving

i had every intention of walking around the entire city today
it turns out paris isn't that small
manhattan, has nothing on paris
(this may be completely incorrect, but i felt like saying that)
it is true that most manhattan train stations have NOTHING on paris stations
or at least not the big ones
like, yea we have 42nd street, but have you seen the gare at chatelet les halles--don't pronouce the "s" at the end of "les"
anyway, so i took le train au charles de gaulle etoile which is where arc de triomphe is
tres belle
i even had my appareil-photo, complete avec film from mon ami Gerald Peart, a great and amazingly kind photographer who said (and followed up on his word) that he would get me film for my trip in my mains avant i left for paris...and ladies and hommes, i tell you this: this great homme came to meet avec moi sur le matin i was leaving for paris at the busstop to get me what i needed to take the wonderful pictures (j'espere) i'm taking ici on days comme aujord'hui!

so i was at arc de triomphe
taking some pics
then i stopped in a pharmacie thinking peut-etre je can get a cheap pair of sunglasses to block the vente from blowing the water from behind my eyes onto my cheeks
this one guy caught my eye and i his (i think it may have been mon chapeau, which this little lady definitely stopped to say she liked: i LIKE your hat--very pretty!...i couldn't tell if she was francais or if she thought i may have been...tant pis!)

nothing more on the guy except that we both ended up (strangely) in the same pharmacie just a few moments plus tard
let's see
this is about where things get good
i noticed there were some shops nearby...tu connais...
les stores that are everywhere but you still dois enter juste because
louis vuitton, boss, hermes, etc
these are the stores that you know you....ou JE connais that I will never really buy anything from (except that wonderful pair of purple and green sunglasses i saw aujord'hui!)

yea, so i went in a few stores, car then i was hungry, donc i stopped in this fast food spot (because i didn't FEEL like paying 20euro for my meal at cette point!) which i actually liked, merci
after i ate and read some of "eat, pray, love" suggested by a wonderful woman at my old job, susan lehman--also an author, i got up and determined to no longer be distracted by the stores
i would find champs elysees!
just as i had planned.....
so i walked around the rondissement that encircles l'arc de triomphe, right back to the street on which i had just been on eating fast food
and i figured, c'est pas possible that i didn't deja pass the street, so i'm just going to go into one of these souvenir shops and ask the question i know i will be called the dumb tourist for today

i found out that i had been on champs elysees the whole temps!
well :)
that lightened my burden of FINDING le avenue (not unlike christopher columbus' discovery of america way back when...yes)
i thought of walking a little ways down and then getting on le train pour regarder something different, but i decided that i did want to marche and it would do me no harm to walk it out (shout out to ashley and the tuskeegee crew for a rockin' NYE 2007. par some reason, that chanson always ends up dans ma tete for that grand fete--YES i did just reference a new annee that happened OVER a year ago now---and you should be living that well aussi!)

so i'm walking
down champs elysees
they've shut off the lumieres for the season (sad adrea, i know) c'est pas la meme sans celui-ci
in and out of les magasins
(no need to get into whether i achete anything today)
today's point is my recent professorship

so i walked into and out of this potentially horrible shop, but as i was walking out of the shop i got stopped by who other than un guard de securite...again!
mais this time, it was for a good reason
il a dit que je suis "beautiful"
i found out later over vin chaud that he only knows a VERY small bit of english
what a treat!

(by the way, this is important because i've been getting plus de slack from mes amis for not having stories about "hot french garcons" pour them--it turns out my living right now, even inspite of the fact i don't have a job and haven't quite figured out all of what i'm heading towards, doesn't have the capacite to be vide, because my living maintenant is for so many who want to be living it for MOI! many lives sont being lived through me right now...even if does take me whole day to tell a day's story)

so i became his teacher
it also turns out i make his heart beat tres rapidement
he told me "i love you," une autre of the few phrases he knows
:-/
i didn't know what to dire a lui, except...c'est pas possible! (let me know if you have trouble with that one)
we hung out for a while (previous to his proclamation) at virgin megastore, virgin cafe, et sur le champs elysees
c'etait bien
he's a very nice guy
i taught him l'alphabet anglais
he m'aider avec mon francais as well, a little
at least the parts he was saying que je could comprends

then i left him behind
that was like 8pm
2pm pour you americaines slackers :)
he put me safely sur le train and went on his way (only to call me...yes i gave him my number--i'll need help with mon francais le plupart des temps!...trois times to make sure i arrivee safely chez mon ami)
oui oui oui!

well...kind of
(this is getting tres longs, oui?)
i'll quicken my pace pour toutes le monde
i got home-ish, as in sur le platform des traines
then i was walking through the turnstiles (not jumping the turnstile, negarra :))
and i saw this petit FINE homme avec a nicely chisled face and corps aussi
i could tell thru ses vetements
oui oui
wait, that's not to say j'ai regarde
it just struck my radar kind of hard
(remember, je suis under beaucoup de pressure de mes amis)

so let's just say i became his professor d'anglais aussi
even though he was supposed to be heading to the city for training...for his body indeed
:-D
but serieusement...je suis his prof
he doesn't know many mots en anglais either
donc i taught him some
and then he was walking---ohh
j'ai oublie
so the story is, terence wasn't home yet so i saw the 2nd guy (sounds mal, oui?) par chance on my route home and even though he wasn't on his way home, i gave his reason to finalement catch on (read: with mes yeux) and he ran up behind me and walked me to his apartement (mom, nia, and anyone else, je promis, this isn't as dumb as it sounds--je suis tres safe)
as a matter of fact, if this is too much, you should probably arrete reading now :)

anyway, since my roomie wasn't home and since i don't have a cle pour le chambre, he nicely said i could wait dans son chambre
so i did
and i taught him l'anglais while i waited
i owed him some kindness, j'ai pense
so when he was walking me back to my room, nous ran into un ami of his who understood english much better than him, so we talked for a petit temps, and apres, they both walked me into the dorm where je reste
and quand je found out that terence still wasn't ici, they walked me back to his dorm room
(so i peut voir how this could sound VERY dangereuse, but you gotta trust i really don't put myself in compromising situations)
je connais--who does, arin!!!?!??!?

but serieusement
c'est d'accord
so the guy we'd just met had called his girlfriend so she was coming
oh, by the way, both guys are from mali
they're cousins--how doux!--and great people
les deux study computers (...ordinateurs--that's right, you're catching on!)
and the one qui i'd just met was asking for un peu d'aide with a presentation he has this saturday approche for his final exam for l'universite

so i was editing his paper when his girl came in
i think they must etre dans amour
ahhhh oui!!!
she's tres gentillesse and we all just hung out for a while
i helped him fini son editing and then the one whose room it is made me some rice with some sauce over it (REALLY GOOD!!!!)
j'adore le nourriture gratuis--as in free food! :)
so he'll give me a tour de paris demain--tomorrow!
yay!!!

ainsi, i finalement came home and immediatement got on here to tell you all that i love you very very much

maybe i'll space these posts out so that those of you who actuellement read them can get some work and some sleep done entre

a demain!
(i promise to learn to how to get to the point one day! tres rapidement!)

Today je parle en franglish

parce que je deteste le francais maintenant
(and don't even ask me about the accents)

je sais, je sais
plus de gens have been asking me: what about the blog?
you've been there pour quatre jours, cinq jours
de quoi de ton blog?
the truth is this: when you can sleep, tu ne pense pas de son blog
really...vraiment
it's the farthest thing from your mind
je promis

anyway, today i blog, why?
because i stopped myself from the first of many could be (and i hope won't be) mistakes i may make ici a France

I went today tous seule (thanks for the tutoring Kafayat) a la grand magasin
my purpose: acheter un telephone portable
(oh and for those of you who parle pas de francais? suck it up because i have to do it EVERYDAY...comme toutefois)
get a dictionnaire

sidenote/question: WHY do they teach us USElessness like, chat et noir et fromage, when they should just start speaking? if educational systems qui enseignent le francais actually wanted to teach us something that would enhance our lives, when they taught us les langues, they would definitely let us marche into our classrooms at age 5 or 6 or whenever and just parle!
mais, non
ils ne le want pas=they don't want that
they just want to get paid for coming into the classroom, wasting our time and theirs, and walking away with a paycheck fat enuf to buy some pain on the way home (by the way folks, that's not pain for pain; that's pain for bread...comme j'ai dit je parle en franglish today....you'll catch on eventuellement)

so, i went to the mall today to get a cell phone, and on my way out (yes i start with my way out because the way in isn't as wonderful) i get harrassed by un guard securite
pourquoi?
je pense c'est parce que je suis noir
but wait, wasn't the guard black aussi?
oui il est noir, mais je ne sais pas
perhaps il etait malheureuse because he knows i'm prettier than him, even though my cheuveux n'etaient pas plus combe (and yes i think that's horrible grammar as well)

you'll soon see from these franglish posts of mine that my french sucks
and even though i studied english that will start to deteriorate a bientot aussi!

so the guard looks through my cheap green plastic sac de shopping (probably a "kleptomaniac forgettin while stealin"-shange) and finalement ascertains that i am not guilty of having stolen anything
not to mention, s'il te plait! si j'aurais steal something, please rest assured it would be plus cher que cette telephone

so let me tell you about my phone
it's white
oui, je le dit
c'est blanc
et pour les gens qui me savent, tu connais que je deteste blanc
pourquoi?
parce que blanc gets DIRTY vitement
c'est pas bien

anyway, it has a SIM card, which i made sure to tell them my old phone (or even my most recent phone, upon which everyone in the US dotes, from sprint does not utilise un SIM card)
"c'est stupide" j'ai dit quand ils me demande pourquoi
i had no other answer to offre

i wanted the cheapest phone avec the least features
tout que j'ai besoin is a phone
c'est ca
it was about 39 euro, which comes out to about...i dunno maybe 60 or more dollars?
and then it came with a SIM card (what a novel idee!)
and then i had to buy minutes to go avec ca
j'ai achete un carte pour soixante euro
from that i should get something like 150 minutes
and mom, je t'adore, mais tu ne peux pas m'appeller sur ce telephone (notice how i change the gender of the phone each time...parce que je ne care pas!)
nous pouvons parler sur le telephone dans le chambre de mon ami, d'accord?
ce tele est pour les calls local

in a minute, quelqu'un penserait that i'm not having a good time
far from the truth
similar to my last days in new york
j'ai rien etre
read: i have nothing to do

i know i said i was coming here to follow my dreams et tout de ca, mais vraiment
i just wanted to sleep for a few months
comme rip van winkle, oui?

non, serieusement
i've been getting a good amount of editing done pour mon livre du poesie
mais je ne sais pas qui veulent le publish pour moi
if anyone has any ideas, please pass them on
i haven't yet figured out where to sing, but i'm open to those ideas aussi
as for pictures, i'm working on it--stay posted
(notice how much better a job i'm doing at teaching you a language you didn't even demandez apprendre)

oh...the whole point of today's blog
this is for lindsey (qui a dit que je ne dedicate jamais un blog posting a lui)
as i was fait le packing pour ce journey, i told lindsey what bags i was bringing
elle a dit c'est trop de sac
tu n'utilise pas tous de sac!
i said, YES i will
si tu me comprends, tu connais que je les utilises tous and because i have them i won't buy anymore

well...i am ici to tell you that i was pres to manquer my word a lindsey aujourd'hui
after i left the store where j'ai achete mon telephone and got harrassed by the big black security guard (to whom, by the way, i did donne le yeux--the eye, as i was leaving...read: i hope you feel stupid now you've looked through my bag, wasted my temps and yours, and at least tried (though you failed) to humiliate me, in addition to missing so many autres qui are DEFINITELY stealing from the store as i speak. and i gave it a lui avec un sourire :))

so i went down the escalator and saw a store i like, ZARA
now i know many (if not just my mom) of you are thinking, but i have that in MY city, arin
tu es a paris!
yea, oui, oui
mais when it comes down to it
ca veut dire rien
si je le voudrais faire du shopping c'est necessaire etre comfortable, oui?
oui
donc c'etait a ZARA and i was looking around completely uninspired and un peu scared to touch anything, lest un autre guard de securite would come apres moi avec un billy club
apres cinq minutes, j'ai decidee that they'd either come for me or not; it was up to me to run and how fast

donc, i was doing the shopping (what a weird way to talk you french people) and i finally saw a bag or two worth my time

now i know i just said i had told lindsey i needed tous mes sacs et that i would not buy another one while i was here because i'm not that grande of a bag person
mais quand j'etais pres de feu
i almost broke mon histoire (i'm not sure that was the right way to say that, but i'm going avec ca)

so i had decided between the deux sacs that had caught my attention (le meme mot dans les deux langues)
the one i thought was best had one character flaw
the bag was slightly hobo-ish (go fig) and it had lots of color on it
le rouge et le blanc (ugh) et le vert et dark green (j'ai oublie comment ditons "dark" i'll look it up--je connais que "light" est "clair"--je pense que "dark" est "fonce"...attendez-vous s'il vous plait) et le brun et plus des autres couleurs
but there were these two drawstrings in addition to the brown straps (which i don't think were leather-i have this thing pour le cuir) which weren't even the brown i usually wear mais je suis ouvre

anyway, the bag was great but the deux drawstrings on chaque side of the sac were this weird off-white, which i felt was misplaced and just wrong

so i'd already looked in the mirror, or actually several different mirrors in the store and j'ai decidais (pas bien) that it was a great bag and i had to have it...and then i got to the queue, where there seemed to be some kind of misunderstanding or quelquechose
parce que these two filles at the front were taking forever!
at first, i said to myself, if this takes plus de temps, i'm not gonna even bother
then after deux minutes, j'ai dit serieusement, i'll wait for another, ehh trois minutes
then je stopped and j'ai dit a moi: je n'aurais achete (is that correct for "i wouldn't buy"? somebody help me out) ce sac a New York si c'etait soixante dollars, donc je ne peux pas acheter ici maintenant
mais j'ai faim!

so i didn't buy the bag in the name of common sense, and also in the name of mon ami lindsey, qui a dit tu ne dois pas porte tous les sacs
lindsey, i can't say you were completement vrai, parce que j'ai mon pride
mais, tu m'inspire to not spend my money too loosely

i'll think of you siempre
ohh shoot!
sorry...didn't mean to mix languages like that :)

lol, yes i did
i LOVE the word always in spanish
maybe i'll go someplace comme ca le prochaine fois

anyway, that's my story
for those of you who got to the end, mon dieu
j'espere qu'il tu blesse (no, blesser means to hurt)
i hope He blesses you
that's what je veut dire

i'm certain i'll have more stories as the days go by
stay posted
stay in touch
and send me friends' emails so i can beg them to teach me french
so i don't always have to use my franglish on you
:)

au revoir!
a demain!
on se voir!
(there are TOO many ways to say byebye in cet langue)

bye now!