Thanksgiving Revisited

I received Katy's Thanksgiving pictures this morning, and hasten to post them since it was so last week. We had quite the enthusiastic welcome from the chef at l'Enclos, and my first thought when he showed us the turkey was, "how the heck is that going to serve thirty-five people?!" Luckily they must have had a turkey reserve, because we all got more ample serving sizes.

This was most of our table waiting for the main course to arrive. Notice how I'm gripping my spoon. That's how ready I was to eat something, anything. Katy is on my left, and Tracey is at the far end.

In lieu of eating the tablecloth, a lot of people went around to get pictures of everyone else. Here's Corinne and Natasha, our program assistants. Stealing the spotlight is Larry Washington, jr. The sad story with him was that his first request for housing was a homestay, secondly a dorm . . . and the program gave him an apartment. How disappointing.

Oh, yes! This was after we had already started (you couldn't stop me!) but the love remains. Mashed potatoes! Turkey! Beans! We wiped up every last remnant with bread afterwards so as not to waste a bit. I felt like a glutton.

As for dessert, we all got a healthy-looking slice of pie with whipped cream on the side. I thought they were kind of going nuts with the cream but it turns out the stuff on the lemon tart is some sort of crunchy meringue. Whatever, it was still delicious.

Lunaret Visit

I have so many things to share! On a whim today, I dragged Sam to the zoo with me and it was a roaring good time. I managed to completely fill my camera card, which is a feat in itself. Let's take a look, shall we?

I wanted to hit the Lemurarium first, since we didn't get to spend that much time there last visit and they are very personable. Lots of jumping, lots of swinging. I love their little faces.

This little fella (well, it could have been a girl) was outside in the cages, in the corner. This video wasn't turning out so great until I noticed that the shadow on the wall above the lemur had quite a personality. Plus there's some fun lemur grooming.



Ooh, the nocturnal mammal cave of wonders! It was hard to take this picture because the only way to look into the exhibit was through little circles cut into the dark plastic all around it. Can you spot the rodent?

Remember this guy from last time? He's made a remarkable turnaround, unless the first one died and this is his cheerful replacement. Oh, I was laughing so hard that I cried. In the lemurarium. Look at this video first. He would not stop scratching. Now, watch the aftermath. Words can't even describe how funny I found it.



Wikipedia tells me that 'fossa' is pronounced FOO-sa, and looks like a cross between a dog and a cat (so true!) but in fact is closer to the mongoose.

The mysterious otters were out this time, in cute, fun glory. You 'otter' see this video, hardy har har. For even more adorability, click on this one.




They also had a recent acquisition of the camels, both Dromedary. We weren't as close as you can get at the Pittsburgh zoo, but it wasn't too bad considering that the camel pretty much acted like a cow and chewed grass.

I think that this should be considered as the best kangaroo picture of all time. Look how dignified and composed he is, while at the same time sassy and casual. Awesome. I like kangaroos.

Apartment

I took a side journey today to get pictures of my apartment's surroundings. This is the main street that it branches off of; notice the Arc de Triomph at the end.





To get there, I have to pass about a million high-end designer boutiques. Woe is me.





Here's the street sign, Rue du Petit Scel. I didn't know what a 'scel' was, and neither did my French program director. Turns out it's an old-timey word for 'seal', as in an adhesive. Street of the Small Seal? Whatev.


Here's the Rue du Petit Scel in all of it's splendor. Note the large, old church. It's in a very nice part of town. I'm excited.






Ooh, lookee. The doorbells. We'll be at the one marked "Tempier, L". I kind of like it; maybe I'll just keep it there instead of uncouthly taping a label on top.

Walkabout

Just as before, these kind of murals get me every time. Seriously. It's a good thing that I don't live near them because I'd feel like an idiot every day.






Ooh, imposing walls. I found this little enclosure on my walk today. There was an entire little community inside the walls.



It featured a little coffeeshop called Cafe Mango. Look at the cute hand-madesque chairs and table.



A nice trough fountain nearby.







Here's the bank that I frequent, the Credit Lyonnais. We aren't on friendly terms right now since they penalized me for not having a high enough balance in my account. Fie on them.

Strike!

I didn't post a whole lot this weekend. You know why? Because I was grieving. My precious, precious camera was acting wonky and that bummed me out like mad. The story begins on the tram last Thursday. These stupid protesters were blocking the tram lines on purpose so that no one could get by and so we just sat for about fifteen minutes before I got out and walked up to get a picture. After taking the second picture, I noticed that the lens was still out even though the power button wasn't on. Attributing it to a lack of power, I inserted new batteries just to see the lens turn this way and that and then make some unfun grinding clicky noise. Not good. I turned it on and off again, and the same thing happen. Oh, crap.

So basically this continued all weekend. We're outside the warranty, so that's no good. I got into quite a funky sad state and napped a lot. Finally out of desperation, I heeded some random guy's advice online and smacked it several times against my desk on the camera card side. Though I was really just expecting it to do more damage, this reckless tactic actually worked! I didn't believe my eyes when I turned on the power and could actually zoom in and out. So now I'm feeling a little giddy with happiness.

The unnamed guppy gave birth the other day, in her own special nursery designed so that neither she nor the other cannibals in the tank could eat the babies. At my count (which is unreliable due to the speedy nature of the offspring), I could see twenty-three.

Oh, Reggae. You're too cute. She spent a lot of time clawing at my mattress the other day. They both left this morning.

C'est Noel! (Not Yet)

I've been trying to spend more time walking around lately, since although it's been relatively warm lately, people are prophesizing a cold spell ahead. Remember Virgin Megastore's last promotional ad? She's back, and almost as exposed as ever.



On the same trip, I was fortunate enough to catch another exhibition of live performance art. At least, I think it was a demonstration of sorts. There was a short-haired woman in complete bridal regalia sitting on a chair in the middle of the Comedie, changing her shoes. I didn't really get it.


Public defacement at work! Somehow, vandals near the campus managed to stop the rotating billboards (I'll have to take a movie of it some day, it's kind of bizarre) and spray-painted "Pollution Visuelle" along with a happy flower. The small piece of paper taped up there indicates that size sheet should be the largest advertisement allowed.


Cat post! Alvin (Madame's ex-husband) is here for the weekend for some reason I didn't catch, and he brought the cats! Unfortunately, Leon had a little accident in the car, and both him and Reggae smelled horrible. Alvin had to dip Leon in the pool to clean him off. Gross. Poor kitty.

Katstava and Reggae are not the best of friends, despite Katstava being Reggae's mom. As you can tell from this picture, it's so on! There was hissing involved.



Aunt Melanie has to be mentioned, since thanks to her I have been continually feeding on galettes, peanut butter, and Nutella for the last twelve hours. Mmm. And Frosted Mini Wheats! The elusive, mysteriously-absent Mini Wheats! I trust that the contents of this box shall not last long.

Another cat video, if you're interested. This pretty kitty was on the way into town the other day and just loooved being petted. I want a cat.

Thanksgiving

The office kindly sponsored a Thanksgiving dinner last night for all of the program participants, at an actual restaurant! Classy! I wasn't going to go until Corinne sent everyone an email saying it was paid for already, then I was all over it. It was . . . really awesome. I wish I had pictures - I think Katy is going to send me some of hers and they shall be posted. Here's the menu:

Stage One: bread and water. The reservation wasn't until 7:30 and it took a little longer than that to get everyone organized and at the right tables. The waiters kept incrementally treating us; at first we had a pitcher of water, then baskets of bread, then a pitcher of wine. Hoo boy, fancy. At this point we were all so hungry we just ravaged the bread. I think that our bread basket got replaced four times. Embarassing.

Stage Two: salad. It was really good, but that could have been because I was about to start eating the plates. Pretty standard; lettuce, dressing, olives, onions, tomatoes, walnuts, etc. Tracey doesn't like olives so she gave hers to Katy. Katy doesn't like walnuts so she gave them to both me and Tracey. I don't like onions so I gave mine to Sam. It was like musical chairs. Oh, and there was corn! In the salad!

Stage Three: actual main course. Way good! The smiley host kept coming out to check on us and make sure his restaurant wasn't in shambles, and finally came out holding the entire turkey platter. We ooohed and ahhhhed and whispered to each other that it wasn't going to be enough to feed the entire group (there were about thirty people there). But aha! We all had generous heapings of delicious, delicious, tasty, pined-for turkey. Oh, and mashed potatoes! I even ate the green beans. I don't think that stuffing really exists here but they got pretty close; it was like if you took actual stuffing and pureed it in a blender and then dolloped some out to each person. It was an enormous plateful of food. I felt engorged.

Stage Four: dessert. Not pumpkin pie, alas, but something else - lemon tart. It had this meringue-y topping with whipping cream on the side, which was kind of different, but the inside of the tart was absolutely delicious. Mmm. Sam didn't want his lemon tart, and Tracey and I quickly went to work on it while Katy was off taking pictures of other tables.

So after that three-thousand calorie meal, I had to make it home somehow. Despite the feeling that I would have to be rolled all the way back, Sam and I walked to the tram stop, waited ten minutes for the tram (it was ten o'clock by this point), got off at Hauts de Massane, and trekked up the gigantic hill and across the fake lake to our respective houses. Oh, I slept so well! As a bonus, my grammar teacher cancelled today's class so I really don't have anything to do until the library later on. Oh, I should go to the bank and pick up the renter's insurance that's mandatory for anyone in an apartment. This is a pain in a butt. It's only one euro. I would gladly give them five euro to not bother me about it. I have to bring my passport, proof of studies, proof of financial means, bank information, blah blah blah. I'll probably forget some key document and it will all be a waste of time.

The library is still keeping on - Tracey won a hair care product set in the book sale raffle, congratulations. I had to lug it around for two days before I found her. Speaking of the book sale, here's what I picked up:

The Beast of Monsieur Racine by Tomi Ungerer
Images de France, lots of nice French pictures. Much countryside.
Monument International de la Reformation a Geneve
Frime et Chatiment by Jacques Faizant
The Magus by John Fowles
The Stand by Stephen King
Ginette la Reveuse by Willy
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Mind Over Matters by Mike Nelson
Paris: the Secret History by Andrew Hussey

I can hear Mom saying "you shouldn't be buying books! How are you going to carry everything home!?!?" True dat. I'll probably just leave the bulk of them at the office for future generations of students to enjoy.

Jelly

Yesterday evening Elsa was setting the table for dinner, and took a jar of fuzzy jelly off of the table and put it back into the cabinet. "Oh, don't do that," I said, "it's completely molded over, you have to throw it out." She looked at me, then at the jelly, which had a layer of grayish-green fuzz on top. "Oh, that?" she said, "You just scrape that off. It doesn't affect what's underneath." Then she proceeded to scrape off the offending mold into the garbage can and put the jar back.

I think that I'm going to avoid the jelly here from now on. Blech.

Celleneuve

Mondays are always my exploratory days since my classes don't start until 4:00. So today I made an early stop on the 15 line and walked around Celleneuve a little bit.

An old guy wearing a bright yellow Tour de France shirt stopped me and asked why I was taking pictures, then told me all about how that part of the city was the only part that had the original walls, and so on, and walked me all the way to the church, which was pretty. To the left is a set of arched passages that led out eventually to a courtyard.

After awhile, I made my way to a nice park, which had several different fountains. I was fortunate with the weather today; it was about 60-65 degrees and sunny.


Here is someone's pretty gate. Everyone loves the gate here in France; it's very rare to find one that you can even see through. Privacy is a virtue.



This seemed like a very no-nonsense sign. It says, "I stand guard! You enter into this fortification at your own risk and peril".



Everyone's favorite mime was back in action today at the Place de la Comedie. He seemed to be on stilts and had a performance where anytime some guy gave him a coin, he would act like a robot and drop it into his hat. I wish I would have gotten it on my camera.




It's been too, too long since I've posted any cat action. Here's Catstava (I've given up trying to remember her real name) doing acrobatic feats on the corner of my bed.


Here's the demon offspring, Angel. He stunk to high heaven the other day. I brought that up to Madame, and she picked him up and said disgustedly, "oh, Angel, you smell like butt!". It was true.


Last cat picture: this was a cute one that I saw on my walk today that had a crooked tail. The tip just stuck straight out at a ninety degree angle. He really didn't want to be petted by me; a trait that I am finding more and more often in these snooty French cats.

Fa brand makes me smile.









This was an interesting graffito by a law school. It kind of reminds me of Sheldon Plankton but I'm not sure what it was originally supposed to be.



Thank you very much, Aunts Sissy and Melanie, for the Thanksgiving cards. I always feel popular when I come home and Madame says, "ooh, Alaina, something came in the mail for you!" It's a nice substitute for being home.

Fun Facts

I tried to finagle my way into doing the children's books today, but unfortunately Madame Villon is really hankering to get the nonfiction done. You know what? It's BORING. I liked the fiction pretty much straight through (even though the sci-fi got a little repetitive near the end) but this stuff is old. And useless. Literally, useless - around a dozen books in a row had to deal with computer operating systems of the early '80's. Plus they're huge books, and ancient, so I have to worry about breaking one in half every time I flip to the last page. Interestingly, one of the bibliographies of F. Scott Fitzgerald was from the University of Pittsburgh bibliography series, and another philosophy book was printed by Penn State.

There was a plentitude of topics that I covered in two hours, ranging from paranormal happenings to group therapy to Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten to Freud. A veritable hodgepodge.

Of course, I always find stuff that I want to read. Today's catch: Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts. So far, it's very good. Did you know . . .

Though they were only five and three years old, Susan and Deborah Tripp, two sisters in the U.S. in 1829, weighed 205 and 124 pounds, respectively.

Thomas Alva Edison's first attempt at marketing an invention was an offer of a new stock ticker he had devised to the president of a large Wall Street firm. Edison wanted to ask $5,000, but he was only twenty-three and completely inexperienced, and his nerve failed him. He asked the president to make an offer, and the president offered $40,000. Edison learned the lesson of not asking too little, and that was probably more valuable to him than this particular sum.

I happened upon this clip yesterday and couldn't stop laughing. The arm-wrestling isn't important; just watch the song part. I must have played it twenty times.

Walking past the Diagonale Campus movie theater today, I stopped in my tracks and just stared at one of their movie posters. It featured an Asian girl with tattoos fully nude. Just, like, out there. And it was a huge poster! No one else really seemed to care, but I got a picture, to be sure.

Jokes that Don't Work

I set out on the arduous task at dinner today to explain several wordplay jokes that really, really translate badly. I started with one that I thought would be pretty obvious. It wasn't.

Why do the French never use two eggs for their omelettes? Because one egg is un oeuf.

Hee. That's one of my favorites. But it took Elsa about five minutes to get it, and then she said that it wasn't really funny. Then I pulled out this gem, which also happens to be one of my favorites:

So these two atoms are walking down the street, and the first one goes, "Crap! I think I lost an electron!" The second one says, "are you sure?" The first one says, "I'm positive!"

That one seemed to work a lot better. At least Christian found it really clever. The French also have their version of the squished tomato/ketchup joke, except theirs isn't funny at all. In full:

There are two tomatoes walking down the street named Katy and Julie. Katy crosses the road just fine but Julie gets hit by a car and completely flattened. Katy turns around and says, "hurry up Juju!"

I completely didn't get it for much longer than I should have, but 'Juju' is a nickname for Julie, as well as the word for 'juice' twice, since she was flattened to juice. Aha, hmmm.

I took out About a Boy from the office library forgetting that I had read it before, but luckily it's just as good as I had imagined. I actually guffawed on the tram this morning and had to hurriedly compose myself lest others think I'm one of the crazy ladies that talk to themselves and smell like cat pee.

Oh, happy 21st birthday to you, Horny Rob!

Multiphoto Day

Oh, many things happened today. I'll try to present things in a chronological manner.

I spotted this sign on my way to the Gare St. Roch today and got off a few stops early just to take a picture. I had already formed some fun sentences, such as "Damm! That's good beer!" or "Damm that beer of Barcelona!" Stuff like that.


But on the way, I spotted my very first bona fide French discotheque. The name helped me out - I.D.E.M. stands for "Internationale Discotheque des Etudiants de Montpellier". Maybe I should go get funky.


Awhile later, I was buying a notebook in the Monoprix and at the checkout line when who walks in but . . . a mime! In full costume! Oh, man! It was tricky to take a picture not only because I didn't want to seem conspicuous to the mime himself (though what was he going to do, yell at me?) and also the security guard was right there. That guard must work every shift since each time that I ever make a purchase at Monoprix, he's there.


Maybe he wasn't a mime, just an eccentric performance artist. This was my second, bolder attempt. It's a really crappy shot, I know, but better than I was expecting. Can I get a close-up?

Fuzzy and weird, but the mime needs not pixel clarity nor speech in order to make a statement.



Two minutes after Monoprix, I intercepted a dispute between Cops on Bikes and the good gentlemen who serenade the Comedie with their guitars and amps every afternoon. I would hazard a guess that it was a problem with some sort of permit they should have. Notice the accordian.

This is the handicapped-inaccessible bookstore which they call a librarie and gets me every time.







I liked this reflection.







This is the pigeon that the other program participants affectionally call 'Nipplefoot'. I got a good look at it, and it's pretty sad. It looks like all of his toes except the back ones were chopped off. However, he seemed to get along well enough, probably from the spare crumbs of pitying lunchers. And, before you ask, of course I got a video. The sound you hear at the beginning is the tram passing by. He hobbled around like a miniature Captain Ahab.

Translation

Here's the first part of a series of translations I'm doing for one of my classes. It's not a bad story, but the slang made some of the phrases a little awkward at first. The author is Anna Gavalda, and she's pretty popular here. Enjoy.

Pet Store Take Two

Here's a panoramic video of the rodent families at the pet store.


The weather rebounded from being extremely chilly to unseasonably (for me) warm. It was like September weather here - around 60, sunny, breezy. So their plants are still being kept outside. Here's some fall-colored bushy ones.

This is another type of plant that I see often around here, that has little berries instead of flowers.




These are even fancier than the 'fancy mice'.






Oh, fish pictures. This was in the tropical section,





My favorite aspect of this one is the bubbles in the background.







I really like this video of the mice, not only since they remind me of Angelina and Miss Lilly, but also because they were a lot funnier than the other lethargic pets.