random rants n remarks

My cooking, apparently very yum
It turns out everyone loves my cooking! They are so nice. Everytime I make something, Gersende says, oo that smells good! Haha, I am loved here! Everything from my spaghetti to meatballs to chicken to even my scrambled eggs. I'm lovin' it.

Organizing my entries
Does this help you to read my entries if I bold a topic line? I think I write too much for you to read so maybe this'll help you skip past things you don't want to read.

BBQ
A couple weeks back I was stumbling through paris trying to get back to Republique from St. Michel and thought I could take a short cut through the marais. I tired and failed miserably. The marais is full of tiny narrow streets with tall buildings and I got pretty lost. Somehow I met a bunch of french kids and ended up having drinks with them that night/morning, and got invited to a bbq. (side note: I told Gersende about it and she was said, "you'd be a massive idiot if you didn't go!") She didn't mean the comment to be derrogatory, its just her way to talking. So tonight was the BBQ. Clement lives in the suburbs of paris. Note to self- I need to comment on the suburbs. I met Melanie and Saed at the metro and Clem came and picked us up. The whole situation was totally cool up until the point where I was sitting in the car and thought to myself, wow I have no idea who these people are. I couldn't really remember how good of a judge of character I was the night I met them, and here I was sitting in a car with 3 strangers going somewhere in the suburbs or paris. So I think my wall went up a bit. Anyhow Clem drove through this huge gate, which turned out to be his driveway. There were a handful of ppl there already, and I only knew 4 of them. But it made me feel better that everyone didn't know everyone and it was somewhat of a random bbq, just like all of our college parties.. random crowd. The bbq started pretty promptly after that, there was chicken and sausages (hot dogs) in baguettes (buns), ha! To my surprise, baguettes make pretty good buns.

More people showed up throughout the dinner, and then most of them left. By the end there was a handful of us again, and this time it was more fun because they were ppl I knew and were comfortable talking to. Melanie went off on Bush, HA and Clem got mad at Saed for certain reasons which I won't write about, etc. etc. It was cool to see how similar (and not so similar) the ppl in our countries are.

Clem had asked me to bring some whiskey, (Good bbq, Yeah!) and so I brought the jack I had bought in Berlin for cheap. MM I haven't had jack in sooo long. It totally reminded me of home. So many memories.. pause.. reminiscing moment... ok done. Anyway french ppl aren't really rowdy like the states. A few people got up to dance, but mostly everyone just sat at the table. And that's how they have their fetes. Ou sorties. I really felt like my french improved tonight, or at least I got used to listening and diffferentiating words, even though I didn't know what they meant. I got along pretty well tonight with my french, yay. And on top of that made a bunch of french friends who are my age (23). Yes, MY age. I said that to Gersende and Nada and they gave me attitude for saying that! (they are 26+). So I was shocked that they said that, because I didn't think it was a big deal and would mean anything. AnywaY, they've totally called me young and a baby, or made comments about our different ages. And I'm totally shocked again cuz obviously they do notice a difference in age! Bah!

So all in all the bbq was a success, and a good time. I'm glad to be hanging out with french kids cuz 1) it'll improve my french a lot (not just gramatically correct, but also how people really speak french), and 2) i get to learn more about french culture the way french ppl live. It's a super rad situation.

superman the movie
I saw superman the movie last night. I give it a good rating. The movie was well done (minus ALL the impossible things that happend. I might get into that more later). BUT did anyone else feel like something was missing? Or not supermanish? I felt that the love story was played on too much, and there wasn't enough tradgedy and sacrifice. In all other superman series and movies he has to give up something for his responsibility. Kinda like spiderman. The movie ends on a totally happy note.. he has a kid, and he's got Lois. Btw, whatever happened to clark kent? (what a good transition into the impossible things. Let's roll with it.) Also how the hell did he lift up the island made of kryptonite? That makes no sense whatsoever. Apparently kryptonite doesn't have a big effect on superman when he's lifting a frickin island and throwing it into space. And what the hell is Lois' husband going to do when he finds out his kid has superpowers? That'll be a sticky situation, better run now Lois. And why was superman so weak in the very beginning... did he hitch a ride on that meteor back to earth, and he couldn't jump off it before it hit the atmosphere? Also why couldn't the kid open the dang kitchen door, especially right after he pushed a grand piano into the henchman without even flinching. Bah. Other than all that, it was a good movie.

paris and its suburbs (banlieues)
Paris is really enclosed. I compare it to the pentagon. Once your'e inside, you are sustained by anything you need. Post offices, restaurants, food, accomodations, etc. The pentagon is a self sustained city. So is paris. It is completely different than the outside. And the thing is, I only notice it when I take the train to outside of Paris. It's like a whole new world. Where did the tall buildings go? Did I just pass through a wall that surrounded paris? Those are the questions I ask myself everytime I leave the city. Paris and France are two totally separate things. It's not like the bay area (San Francisco) and it's suburbs where they are somewhat similar, or at least there's a medium (namely Oakland/Emeryville etc) between total metropolis (SF) and suburbia (um, how about Moraga).

But being in the suburbs really made me miss home and it reminded me of why I love the suburbs so much. I love sitting in my hot tub and staring into the sky, watching the stars, listening to the peaceful silence. vs. the city hearing motorcycles, and they are really really really loud ones, drive down the street at all hours, people walking under my window and me eavesdropping on them, insane unexpected parties down the road at club gibus, etc. I really do love living in this situation cuz well, I never have, but really having a taste of the suburbs again made me miss it a lot.