Spain - where even dudes like flamenco

subtitle: The rain in Spain stays mainly in Madrid.





I congratulate myself for sneaking around in Html land so that I was able to find out how to post photos from Flickr! There has to be an easier way, but the way I figured out ain't so hard. Gotta brush up the blogging skillz!
I'm on feedburner, too - and no I don't really know what that is yet, but hey. Soon I will.

ANYWAY: At last, the time has come for me to regale you with stories of my time in Spain! Spain:
Barcelona - party-crazed tourists
Madrid - flamenco dancing Spanish dudes sipping sangria in between passionate claps

Guess which one I liked more?

But its not important.
Ok, more to come...

So much dairy, and so much time

In the time its taking me to upload my photos and pledge to write to you about the great country of spain, I've been eating a lot of cheese lately, and I'm drinking so much milk you'd think I was in my "prevent osteoperosis" phase that I went through when I was 13.

In some/most villages in france, cows outnumber people (goats must count in there, too...lots of goat milk stuff here), and the water here is weird (look at my pictures, I my hair has french-water-induced weirdness) - so milk is where it is at.

America votes - Nov. 7th.

*this post is from November 6th (blogger is being weird), and I'm happy that my cries of "tout va changer" were not in vain!*

I am sorry that I am not around for the ridiculous non-presidential elections that are going on. I am not sorry, however, that my sister is totally clued in. I hope those who need to are keeping it classy enough so as to bring to light those that are in no way keeping it classy (much less keeping it unsacreligious), and that everyone goes out to vote tomorrow and that you all continue to use youre machetes to cut through red tape and the like.

And so the blog will turn to more european discussions, as there is much to recount!

Some things worth noting:

Though I've fallen behind the running commentary of Europe and Europeans through the eyes of Lori, in addition to promising to not fall behind no mo', I thought I'd put some snippets of what I've noted en lieu of an actual post.

Promises that an actual post is coming soon.

• Berrachon – best chocolate in france in the 6eme... this is really just for me to note.
• Yes, I called the Royale to ask what kind of whiskey was in a Senator. Yes I was in France, but no I didn’t mention it. No, I am not ashamed. No, I have not found Powers Whiskey in Lyon (Jameson is not the same!). I thought the lovely Roayle employee said "palace" so maybe I CAN find Powers whiskey. This whole whiskey love affair makes me feel like a tweed-wearin' irish literature professor who walks with a cane. I can dig that.
  I tried to make a wireless network through concrete walls of my 60's era school building and across a courtyard with a wireless router and some detarmination. Apparently I sorta broke the computer for a day, and many french teachers were mad. Though they did not know I did it b/c it was night! And now the computer is fixed, though I have no wireless still. Sorry I broke your computer, french people, but my American comanches invented it (with a swede, i think), so I was only doing my patriotic duty by fighing for my rights by sneaking around at night, Boston Tea Party Style. Internet is v. important, ps, and everynight when I must leave it I die a little.
• I have gone on a "Notebook" binge. Its the only movie I brought to France, and I think I've watched the director's commentary so many times I secretly think me and Nick Cassavettes are friends. It feels like it!
• European websites are struggling. By struggling, I mean they are bad. Very bad. Completely unnavigatable. Maybe not all of them, but the important ones (trains) are.
• Cool flea markets in Lyon : I mistakenly thought they were called "Villes de Grenouilles" - which means "Frog Cities" ( I mean, crazier names have happened)...but they're actually called "Vide Greniers" which means something like, Empty the Attic! I'm glad someone emptied their attic, b/c check out what I got for 10 euros:

Batman Rollerskates!

• merde, sadly, Raconte-moi La Terre, my wifi hotspot of choice tonight (out of like 5 in the whole friggin' city...what gives) is closing, so I'll check back later with ya. Flip side!
  

In other news, the Rebeccas are going to see Marc Broussard tonight! Wow.
I remember when I first saw him, a year ago yesterday. Sigh.
I remember emailing my friends to tell them that my life had been changed for the better by sweet soul music. Lives are usually changed by little else. Since then my life has been pretty exciting and changed, come to think of it -- trials and tribulations included!
May they take many a video, and possible get a signed forearm out of it!

In case you are puzzled, that's Mr. Broussard's signature on the right, and Chuck Berry's on the left.

The Grapes Couldn't Protect Scott from being Awesome

AHHH!
Scott's aim is true.

Even an ocean away, and 8 or so years past my purchase of his seminal first album, my heart goes on for one Mr. EC. If he didn't exist, someone would try to invent him, holla!

Scott is a daring papparazzi-type-hero-of-mine!
It was enough when I made him dress us as Mr. Costello as a condition for getting to escort me when I was on the Winter Dance Court senior year of high school...or so I thought! Though Lindsay Lockhart won, and she is lovely, I feel as though Scott and I are well on our way to winning the Winter Dance Court of life, as chance encounters with bad-ass rock&roll pioneers could only indicate.

4 Continents!

Just got news today that, thanks to Jennie -- my suprisingly bilingual friend, currently tangoing her way through all the garages of Lima, Peru -- Fleur de Lori now boasts a 4 continent readership! Sure, I think whoever read it in Australia only stayed on the site for 2 seconds, but just the same! Its exciting, people!
Just another way the internet is awesome.

Speaking of worldliness and awesomeness, perhaps you'd like to send me a letter?

N'hesitez pas! as they say in froggish.

Lori White - Assistante d'anglais
La Martiniere Duchere
300 Avenue A. Sakharov - CP 417
69338 Lyon CEDEX 09
FRANCE

Tag on a little "airmail/par avion" to ensure its speedy delivery.

The "Spirits" of Cherokee -- a BYOB solution?

Sometimes I'm tired of thinking in croissant and frog-leg, and -- due to substantial drinking or excessive blog reading (I have yet to combine both) my mind floats across the pond.

Having some thoughts in France about this whole Cherokee Street Situation.

Mr. The Royale should just make his little place that he clearly wants to start up on Cherokee a BYOB until the aldermen stop the silly close-mindedness and have it be a bar full of excellent mixers (juice, duh?), and the civic-minded citizens bring the booze themselves! Brilliant!

It could be suuuuper fun, and quite glamorous. Cost effective; too?
I already want to go to this bar.

I used to live in Philly, where they overcome creepy Quaker Society of Friends (sober ones) drinking laws with the BYOB option. I don't know, it just sounds cool - and all this alcohol availability over in the EU seems to result in very little of the apocalypse predicted by a certain alderman... and the "residential character and the neighborhood serving commercial business" seem only to benefit from a few classy watering holes...well hey.

One such watering hole here in Lyon even has WIFI - a very enterprising and kind man from Valencia runs it, and thank GOD for him b/c WIFI is something I need, and france needs more of. (not as bad as france needs to learn how to make websites ... check out http://www.petitpaume.com hello! there's no blog, and the website is incomprehensible, even if you speak french...and guess who does? me. and Lyon, France. and we both need that website and its city guide goodness. STL could use the city guide festival - and the festival attendance - ... that all was amazing.)

A wise man travels to learn about himself...did someone say that? I'd like to learn about myself, but for Missouri (and elsewhere).

sidenote: I wonder if I could talk to the irish catholics I know about this alderman business - i know I'm like, only 3 degrees away from the policeman who worked the Cherokee Street Beat (and hated it and told his daughter never ever ever to go there because she would die in nasty ways). I suppose I have little cred, being barely irish and totally Methodist. If 95 theses couldn't convince'em, how do I stand a chance!?

Somehow I managed - through the generous and zen disciplinary spirit of one Ms. White, mom-extraordinaire - to go down to the "fun" (I believe it's sometimes called) part of Cherokee street at least once a week starting when I was like, 16...chaperoned only by The Blue Wonder- my swell car, and the genial owners and patrons of the corner of iowa and cherokee, more specifically of Casa Loma Ballroom... to survive quite well on that side of Jefferson.
And look at me now!

Could there be a way to rally support of pre-patrons for a new cherokee street bar through the wonders of http://www.barjax.com or even MySpace ?

These are things I think about when I'm in France. I also think about the typewriter cafe that's happening on Cherokee. I wanna go there!

French things have been happening, too -- expect to hear about those soon, too.

Dance off

Yeah, I had a dance off with a french. These are things you need to know.
Yeah, I pretty much won, too...and he got my number. Alas, I checked my phone at the door, so I cannot send him a "texto."
He was rather impressive, v. Justin Timberlake-esque in his dance moves, and he slightly ressembled Noah Calhoun (the notebook, anyone?) so that is not bad.
The gold chain necklace however, that was bad.

Miss Rebecca, who is kickin' it bad-ass style at White Flag Projects in the STL these days, comments:

And you had a dance-off??! I HAVE to hear more about that. I picture it aslike the quintessential Lori in France moment. You, with yourragtime-inspired, soulful American moves and the frog with like Euro-fied pop and locking moves.
What a showdown it must have been.

Indeed. 'Twas. Though I was impressed, I'll say it again.

You guys LOOOVE scarves.

This is what I tell the french children when they as the difference between american and french fashion. Difference between french food and american? Yogurt. You guys love you some Dairy, I say.

I've also been talking a little bit about politics, which is nice. Props to Meredith for working for the good guys!
I just got this quote about the little war that could on terrorism emailed to me, courtesy of Jonny Stewart (Jon without an H, you will always be my guy, hehehe) and the Daily Show news desk:

"Let's pretend this plug is 'Iraq' and you're trying to connect it to the 'war on terror,' which is this avocado. You can do it... but here's the problem: THE AVOCADO STILL DOESN'T TURN ON. And now your plug is covered in guacamole."

Ha.
This is sorta what I thought when it all started - though now its like, weelllll? When the frenchies ask me if I prefer American or French politics, I of course remind them that their last election was between a liar (Chirac), and a neo-Nazi (Le Pen), and then say hey, maybe I prefer America's way, blah blha, and this is how THIS american feels about this and that. I'm not afraid to represent, and I did have the occasional friend who lost family in 9-11 so maybe french kids need to know about that. And maybe if they have relatives who partied after 9-11 (just another CRAZY, and hopefully exaggerated rumor circulated among the expats), maybe they can see that I did not party, no no, not at all.

I had someone ask me what I thought of the patriot act today - way to be on the ball, french girl! This is all coming on the news yesterday that N. Korea verified that they'd had a nuclear test.
Um, )&%*&%_*()#?!?!
Yikes. So needless to say, I was like, wellll, when it first happened, I was like, "not cool" - but now, I'm like spy on me all you want, just let's not have a nuclear winter.
May the magic karma of The Constitution get us through this one, right?

Yesterday I did the Old Lyon Pub Crawl, and I drank 7 buds in 3 hours and got up this morning fresh as a daisy at 8am. It was a blast. In order to catch our buss at midnight, much in the way Cinderella would have to behave were she on a pub crawl - Holly, Silvia and I speeeded through the crawl and won some major street cred with all the Scottish dudes we totally beat. UPenn, you have prepared me for so many things, not the least of them drinking late and rising early.
I got a t shirt!

I must say I was saddened to not see "St. Louis" emblazoned somewhere on my bottles of Bud. I mean, can't Bud rep its birthplace even if its brewed elsewhere?!?!? It felt somehow wrong to be drinking a bud that was so ashamed of its heritage as to not REPRESENT.

Schalfly would represent. They support the arts!

Oh, i read an article on the RFT blog about O'Fallon brewery -- they're trying to be legit or something. It reminded me of the time that Blythe and I went to the Chocolate Bar had an Ofallon summer brew and subsequently called the number to tell them that their beer tasted like White Rain Almond Shampoo. Since I see now that they're sortof legit, I think to myself, "I bet someone got that message."
I wonder if they thought it was constructive. Maybe they acted accordingly!
Anyway, its getting to be time to go to lunch.
Thanks for emailing me, and join my wiki!! (Can you tell I'm excited!)

I have a Wiki! Its so cool!

If I havn't invited you to my wiki - found at http://lolololori.pbwiki.com - ask me!
It hasn't really taken shape yet, but I'm going to use it to plan my Barcelona trip with Emilie, 1/3 of the Lampshade Choir .... and I'm gonna post links and whatnot, and when you post on it (the password's "boogie" - if you're savvy and know how to sign in) I'll be able to get your savvy advice 24/7, and you'll be able to see the crazy planning, not to mention the fact that I will get to give you e-props! Dudes, the internet is awesome.
I'm at the Black Lion in Vieux Lyon on their internet. One coffee get's ya all the wifi you need.
English pub crawl tonight, 9am class tomorrow. UPenn style = no prob.
More posts soon - I'm going to put a link to my wiki asap on the blog!

Le Fish

Well, me and the ladies all tried to go to "Le Fish" at the reccomendation of lovely Becky from California. Well, "Le Fish" doesn't exist anymore, but we did have a lovely time drinking Emma's tequila and various other sundries as l'aperatif. Gonna have to opt out of the aperatif food, b/c its like, bacon flavored cheetos, as the tradition goes.
Emma has introduced me to putting chilli pepper on the lime when you're takin the tequilla.

V. wise! I have a new preference.
May I introduce you to my international clique? From left to right is Silvia (Italy), Me (Missouri - USA...everyone calls it "The States"), Holly (UK), Emma (Mexico), Doris (Austria). We are fun ladies, and we are tough.

Anyway, I'm off to find out if swing dancing is legit here in Lyon.
Check out my Flickr button over there to the right! How cool it that? It's so flashy and glamorous!

On peut voir les alpes! - Agnes

Much ado, much ado - not a lot of time to blog! Good sign. Though its a lot of busy work, schmoozing, maintaining the Lyon hub.

My excellent teacher-friend Agnes called today to tell me that i can see the alpes "On peut voir les alpes!" from my school b/c she's cool like that. Seriously, she is cool. I was on the bus when I got her call - which means a rooster starts crowing from my purse. But I'm standing in the middle of this accordion long-bus thing...it was like being on a really not fun carnival ride - me and the old french lady were like, j'ai peur! = I'm scared! and I really could just not answer, as I was trying to balance I giant Tower Grove Market bag (that I bought from a guy who knew Mr. McCallie! Points to him/the market) full of wine and little bacon flavored cheetos that you're supposed to have before dinner if you're french for "l'aperatif." Anyway, I got to school after there were millions of scary, debatably sanitary - but full of potential nonetheless... ganas! I channel my inner Jaime Escalante, always - schoolchildren running in and out of the bus (I wouldn't be suprised if some were underneath it) and there they were - ALPES! V. exciting for this lady. So I texted Agnes, "j'ai vu les ALPES - HOURRAH" minus any exclamation point, not because I wasn't exclaiming, but because my phone doesn't have exclamation point capability. Its cool though. Guess where I learned "hourrah"??

Bridget Jones in french of course! I'm pausing on Bridge for a bit though to finish The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida. I'm particularly inspired to read this book b/c france's educational system is so contrary to this book, whose concepts sing a lovely song of love to my heart and mind pretty much. Anyway, the Australian teacher here who teaches english agrees. He was like, yeah, I went to school for engineering, was a banker, then I went to get a degree in music, did composition at a school in paris, taught music there and now I'm an english teacher. I was like, hold on - I need a minutem b/c you are too cool for me to absorb all at once, mate! French kids can check out to secretary school at like 13 years old and there's no turning back -- that's the thing dudes. So if you're struggling with your useless degree - at least you could actually get to do whatever it is (outside of atomic physics/brain surgery, yuk yuk yuk) you want to do if you just like, get an internship.
Oh the french school system. A place for everything and everything in its place. Is that good? Don't fence me in - that's what I say.

So I've been talking about organic/free-trade farming vs. whatever else there is. I actually brought up the phrase "happy chickens" today in class. I like to imagine that these children are benefitting from my quirky-urban-farmgirl-mississippi-river-east-coast-intellectual-pom-pon perspective (and that maybe they can learn that it is possible to live in many dimensions?)...but the teacher said they were hungover and they are after all, in something like DeVry over france. Not to hate, but I am keeping it real for now. These kids (the post BAC kids at least -- meaning they've graduated and are technical training kids) have checked OUT - or france did the checking out for them? I think even the kids still in high school don't even have like, AP-takin' kids to look up to/hate/compare themselves to/talk about behind their backs.

On the one hand, if you are a genius magoo, you get to go to private-school level school for free I think, but if you take one year to slack off, suddenly you're on a track to become a lab technician the rest of your life. Not that that's not good. And you DEF cannot get a CompLit degree and then go into cool branding/Marketing like I wanna do. Oh it shocks them, my interdisciplenariness. I hope they think it is VERY american.

Speaking of americannness my friend Becky and I are in the beginning stages of shooting a mocumentary here in lyon. Its going to be funnyyyy, and if we are fo-real, it might just get entered in Cannes. I'm going to attempt to write it, but unfortunately for me I was not involved with SCTV, much less Eugene Levy - like Christopher Guest - so I'm a little behind. And I'm not thinking its going ot be improved, though we did meet a totally flaming french dude who's a member of an acting troupe. Do you do improvised satire, french actors? Rather not take a chance. We'll see.

I'm posting comments to my flickr pictures, get excited! I see the pictures, they are lovely and then I see all the graffiti - there's waaaaaaay more, and uglier than in that picture -- rowr...I will remember to take a photo of the graffiti that I think says, "The vikings vacation in the winter." b/c even I can appreciate the absurdity of its pretty cursive silly message.
I gotta attempt to find something to love in merit-less graffiti that has no street value whatsoever. I'd rather it were easier, like if graffiti were legit. This is a city of murals, hellooo! Someone needs to get Lyon a tag-wall, and some proper manners, stat. Even the riverside's tagging is in no way artful (not counting the vikings). And it would be COOL if it were like St. Louis' tag wall, that I think got shut down, but whatever! (wish I could find some better pictures of it - its cool! represent. )

Anyway, after our aperatif tonight, Me and the ladies (pictures coming of all the ladies, soon) will be going to "Le Fish" - which is some dance boat free for ladies before 11. Yeah, we'll just see!

Did I mention I hung out w 17 year old bakers (boulangers, and they were proud) last tuesday or so? And that soem guy grabbed my mexican friend - she is so awesomely firey...why not meeee? -- and she told him something bad about his mother in spanish and then my other friend screamed somethign totally scary and german while I just drifted into the background, west-philly street-smarts style. That boy was up to no good, for sure.
Anyway, french people distracted drunk grabber man by saying, "what is this!?" a lot and then DGM peed in some doorway and peaced out, but not without a bit of yelling.
It was exciting, and luckily I had trained the girls with meredith's lifeguard training to call for help specifically - "hey yellow shirt!help!" to avoid sad, altrusiticless crowd mentality.
Anyway, said bar where we met was called "WALLACE" (where they have a lot of whisky - anyone feel like researching just what the heck kind of whiskey is in a Senator? Which senaor, you ask? well, its not a joke. not really...hehehe. Though now that I'm thinking of it, i wonde what kind of whiskey can be found in what senator's well-fed belly? Hm. Tabletop book anyone?) I always think this bar is called, "WHISKEY" and that's probably just b/c I'm a tough broad and the like. Anyway, there's a pub crawl going on there on monday, and my friends from "La Martin" are all gonna go - though only a few dare to buy the 7 drinks it takes to get a t-shirt, and yes I am one who dares. That could be my indian name. One-who-dares. My buddy EbConn back in school (all of a year ago) nicknames me "girl who leans" -- as a result of a comedienne who said everyone their first week of college gets an indian name.
Its true, think about it.
I'm going to get that tshirt. Yes, yes I am. Even if my friends have to swear in multiple languages to get it for my 7-drink "plein comme un oeuf" (means "stewed to the eyeballs" which means, drunk) self.
Ok, this was really only meant to be a "hey, I'm commenting on my pictures" announcement! But like so many things, its turned into something else entirely.

I'm going to start reading "A year in the Merde" - if you'd like to join my book-club, I'm starting it soon! We can discuss the book, and then you can all tell me how much I am/am not like Oprah.
Peace.
p.s. I'm going to Barcelona with Emilie at the end of this month, yay!

Familiar (looking) places, no familiar faces

Its a bridge in Lyon! How lovely!

Check out the picture below of Les Lyonnais Cafe... Look familiar to anyone?

Check it out, I think I can upload pictures today! Flickr, here I come soon - though Flickr is a big coming out, so I'm toing to have to really take in the full weight of that decision. Flickr is a force for good, and I like joining those forces! But if you wanna talk about Yahoo, I must represent and say, hey yahoo - not cool what you're doing with China. Not cool, man.

So my friend and I were testing out our french cusswords on the river the other night, and some french dudes came over to us and were like, Hey ladies, you seem charming, how about sharing a glass with us? And we were like, hmmm. ok? Fortunatly, for the sake of cinderella-esque drama, our bus arrived just in time for a dramatic exit. Anyway, we're meeting them tonight - all 5 of us girls, so we will be v. safe, and I will throw down if necessary.

I'm losing energy talking about myself to all the french classes - I talked about how I felt about organic farming vs fair trade and how Starbucks is such a good example of corporate responsibility/force for goodness, and I'm wondering, do you care french children? Does anyone really care ever? I feel like I would, but I'm a nerd.
Anyway, my new flickr account is here :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lolololori/

No, I don't have photos up yet, but I hope to be very legit sometime soon...with tags and blog links and everything! I've taken some lovely graffiti-meets-renaissance architecture pics, as well as some other excellent postcardy ones. We'll see if I can't make some artsy pics, too!
Right now, I'm just hungry I think, so doing anything, especially a charming blog is just not happening.



I do have some ideas for more posts, and my non-internet computer time should prove fruitful (especially now that I've watched The Notebook about 4 times -- Nick Cassavetes is one cool dude, ps - we could totally chill. I like the way he talks like he's in Guys and Dolls or something b/c he's from brooklyn/an old-fashioned fella. Anyway...)

Hope you're keeping it real - all you kids out there driving on the information superhighway ---with the top down, no doubt --- you 'll hear more from me soon!

STL, I will scrap for you.

Yeah, so I had my first drunk french person getting mad at me for being american (strangely enough it was not b/c I was looking like/acting like an imperialist pig, unless you count staying in the bathroom for more than a minute imperialist and piggish.
Whatever, I totally called him/his mother a whore (I think) and when he tried to touch my stl shirt he got a nice american freedom slap.

I have since brushed up on my french cuss words. I am going to be a swearer in french.
I'm a little afraid to be an american, gotta admit. People are telling me not to act american where I teach b/c its not safe. I do not know what this means, but it sortof hurts my feelings.

Still, drunken (and short, i might add) french boys aside, people are nice, and so far the only trouble I get in the Duchere is some seriously weird looks. But they're not rioting anymore, so its cool, right?

It reminds me of Kathy Griffin.

I'm sorry, but this computer doesn't seem to want to let me upload photos. Flickr account coming soon.
More later, gotta go to the walmart of france.

What I'm reading

I also feel that I should that I am reading Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason in french, and I am going to do my darndest to note important phrases, words and passages so that I may begin to speak like Bridget Jones - in french. May I have the patience to note them here on occasion.
To have the inflection of Bridget Jones is just a semi-ridiculous and irrelevant nuance that I feel its time my french should have.

An italian, a mexican, and austrian, an english person and an american walk into a bar....

I don't know what will happen, but it might be cool - and I will get to see it firsthand b/c for the month of october, if not for more, I will be living with a bunch of foreigners. Hopefully I will find some people who will only speak french to me. I think I can count on the Calderos, and Solene, who I will hopefully see more often than never, not to speak english to me.

Speaking of the Caldero's - I'm going to speak in Solene's (the caldero's 11 year old daughter, who also happens to have my birthday) english class. Her teacher is irish, and says that not many of the kids know that americans are friendly after this whole war-business. Ok, cool, whatever, I will be an ambassador to a whole generation of frenchies. I think I'm also going b/c they don't know what school uniforms are like in America and that's the unit they're studying in english class.
Whatever, I love it.

I had the serious blues yesterday afternoon -- we're talking teary-eyed stares at reflections of cathedrals in the river kind of blues. I think I was just overwhelmed with myself trying to be all i can be and coming up a little short 2 weeks or so into the whole kit-n-caboodle of france, europe, travel, living, speaking, eating and having the occasional coffee.

Its just overwhelming and I can't find any folders to buy. Nor can i find an appartment. I'm not sure how i want to fly with that, b/c living for 50 bucks a month is like, sortof a wow factor. We'll just see about the quality of life, etc....maybe I can rent a place for like 3 months at the end of the stretch and really get to know Lyon as a Lyonaisse then, and save up? Do I need to save up? And so the questions in my head begin and I have no answers for them, and i subsequently go a little bit spazzy/crazy. Nothing a coffee and an Erasmus party (= DANCING) can't fix.

My roomates are all very cute and I think we shall really have a time of it once everyone's settled and we all know each other's personalities. I'm just the spazzy american, and that's ok by me, eh? I hope to chill with some american assistants as time goes by - we'll just see what develops. I've sortof given up on taking life in my own hands for the time being as its all in the french bureaucracy's! But soon it will be mine again and I shall go to other countries and be a spazzy american to them.

The oktoberfest for a day plan may be a little dumb. We'll see about the price though!
Ok, I'm going to get some coconut yogurt and think about going to Lyon tonight.

Some semi exciting photos?

Hey, picture time!
I hate being so pressed for time, as well as being pretty much unable to create any posts with any nuances or interesting turns of phrase or whatnot, but it seems to be symptomatic of france.
I just read the Riverfront Times Best of 2006 and I hope you lucky kids get to go to some of those places...I'm happy to see that RFT has good taste and chose some good places that I too can appreciate and have appreciated, and will appreciate well into posterity.
The RFT is excited about STL, and rightly so.

But pictures!
I havn't really had the chance to be very awesome and take lots of pictures b/c well, c'est la vie. Come to france and you will see....

--- enchanting views from 600 year old appartments.....

.....and my dorm room.

It's an apt study in contrast. In good news I went to an Erasmus party (Erasmus is the European Union's effort to encourage happy EU relations through student university exchanges and studies, and mostly...PARTIES. I'm happy to say that in addition to the most annoying techno ever, they played "Think" and "Soul Man." After the occasional top 40 rap song from 2002, I don't think I have ever wanted to hear "Golddigger" more in my life. Save me kanye!More, as always, later!

...and by left I mean right

Yeah, I forgot to draw all the graffiti on the left side of the bridge...so in case you can't see it, look to the right (the river is the Saone)! We'll see if I can't create this picture in real life someday soon! MS paint is the bomb, ps. Did you know that MSN talk is free, and it works like skype...I may just have to save 2 cents a minute with that baby, though MSN messenger seems a bit low brow to me.

I just joined this semi-paid craigslist thing, and it looks like it might find me an appartment. This is good news. The banks are closed today, so I have to save my bank bravery for tomorrow...surely they have some youth package deal that will make life easy for everyone.

I hope all the assistants and whoever come here without too much trauma. So far life's been pretty good to me, though! Knock on wood and all that business, but yeah.
I really hope someday to be witty and poignant in these blogs, but for now, since I'm doing this after all sorts of internet business, I'm just feeling the need to post, but not the need to be a poet. That can be for laters.

And now for some bullet pointing:
- I met up with this lady Magdeleine and her daughter Camille to see if I am the one who gets to hang out with Camille and speak english! It could be fun, and I could totally get into this english+babysitting deal.
- I randomly went into this storefront that had a word that I think means "introduce you to/discover" in reference to lyon, and I met all these nice people and they were like, join the youth group, you'll have all sorts of friends/parties, and its not a cult or anything! Its some sortof "get acquainted with your new city" thing for france, but Lyon has an international branch, and I happened to walk into it. Neato. I met a lovely lady named Francoise who invited me to her apt. for coffee and she and her daughter gave me some appartment finding tips - they said it was going to be hard, but they were MEGA sweet. And their appartment so cute! They also told me that there's a big old french pop star (who I imagine is like, the french britney spears) and her name is Lori and all the young girls in the land wish their name was Lori. Francoise also said that when I came in with my cute outfit and my pink purse it was very much the fashion of "lori" and she thought it was so charming - and I was like, cool, I am pop star-esque. This cannot be a bad thing.
- Oh, i met up with a missourian dude who's going to be an assistant and subsequently got locked out of my room in arab ghetto lyon. Can anyone think of a cute nickname for my ghetto home? Potential Riot Land? PRL? Anyone? Submit your answers.
I did get rescued by the gallant Agnes, who is awesome and I love her family - they're really the coolest. I got back and we talked about the Purvines and whatnot and it was super lovely, actually. Here's what I wrote:
20.Sept.2006
Had a lovely talk (in French) with the precious Calderos. They like the Big Lebowski, we are totally friends. We talked about my cat, my big family, Mormons, Morteau (lots of snow), Edna Purviance and other things. After they saved me from my locked door at midnight sticky situation. Oh la la. Had lovely time with jetlag mike from JeffCo - he's a nice boy and will be a nice friend! Oh! And tomorrow I ill meet a family pour voir si I could babysit their daughter on wednesday afternoons! I hope that works out, I'd like to hang out and speak french with a real french kid! And she goes to dance class so hey, that is really cool. Fun fun fun meeting french people. I hope al lmy paperwork birth certificate translating and band account getting will work out. And that i will find an appartment soon! And that they don't need my soscial security card nor do they require that my carte de sejour be processed within a week of my arrival. Oh la la. FUn night. I like people.

Ok so that was a departure from coherence, but there you have it. Straight from my black leather notepad.
Anyway, it was very 007 waiting for Agnes to come get me from my 60s architecture dystopia. Like, I was in a video game. You can bet I had my keys in my fingers and had my killer instincts on, though I was gated in, so technically fine - but there are not spikes on those gates. Plastic bags moving in the wind nearly gave me a heart attack. But i was saved!

- I saw mormons on the subway and it made me think of Elder Sean P! Shout out!
- I managed to find the emails of some swing dancers in Lyon...we'll see if that works out. I'd like to get to dancing to help speed up my leg rehab b/c having even a slightly gimpy leg is a little achy breaky annoying.
- Walked around Lyon with the Calderos after seeing little miss sunshine with the family on a friday night. Note: always say english things with a french accent. The guy at the movie counter looked like I'd just spoken martian when I said I'd like 2 tickets to Little miss Sunshine. I said it in french, but the title's in English! I guess its like when news reporters switch to a super ethnic accent all of a sudden, and when people pronounce Paris "Par-eee!" - its a little weird. Steve Carell was just as precious as can be as the gay proust scholar in LMS - though the casting was super (greg kinnear, I have loved you since watching talk soup when I was 12) the movie was sortof like, yay for perseverance what a caper, ok whatever. Don't hate on the beauty pageants! The little french girls were like, OMG i would HATE that beauty pageant, how dumb. And i was like, hey now. I was in one, and I won it, so there.
- I met up with some usa girls on saturday - they're other assistants - and they were sweet. One has a real cajun boyfriend (they met at a crawfish boil, I am so jealous) and a penchant for altruism (excellent) and the other seems to be very obsessed with wearing skinny jeans and black flats like she sees everyone here wearing. I was like, ok, you go girl, whatever, did you not notice mischa barton wearing skinny jeans and black flats for like the last 5 years? More power to her, though. Enough of the character sketching - i dont' wanna get catty.
- I had to walk through relatively shady parts of french suburbia (= opposite of american suburbia) where all the guys told me they liked my dress. I was like, its a shirt and a skirt you idiot, excuse me while I ignore you. I managed to trek through and find the mailbox to drop of a copy of my birth certificate for translating. Here's hoping the cost is not from outer space.
- We're better off with our american run-down areas, at least in our cities, than the french I think. They've just got these GIANT human spice cabinets - like STL's old school projects - whereas oldnorthcity,etc... has the space and buildings and even a pretty well built skeleton of community hubs or possible ones to makea veritable community. A spice cabinet is a far cry from this.
So hey.

In other news, send me an email and start your own blog (anyone else discovered google reader? its pretty awesome)! America friends, I miss you! :)
a plus.

I am yellow and ready for adventure!

Did I mention that I think I misprounounce the french word for "young" (jeune) in a way that makes it sound like "yellow" (jaune)? So yeah, I'm telling everyone - in an effort to be a devil may care american type (not that hard) -- "I'm yellow and ready for adventure!"
I don't have my pictures with me, nor have I taken many (but I will!) - so I drew you all a picture.
Its me on the pedestrian bridge with my back to Vieux Lyon -- you can see the basillica (it looks like a grey bat, note the rose window, please) on the upper right, and all the graffiti on the cement by the river on the lower left. Isn't it beautiful? So french. I am of course wearing black, and my hair is a little mussy b/c french ppl don't use conditioner! But it's cool, I'm smiling!

There's no such thing as a French Hipster, and other thoughts

In other news, things I may feel like talking about later, but feel are worth a mention. There’s no such thing as a French hipster. Ok…?
It must be because the concepts of free wi-fi in may places, and old beautiful buildings refurbished in funky ways are somewhat absent here on the continent…for many reasons, backward (not quite into the internet-everywhere thing yet) and forward (their old beautiful buildings, if not blown up by Germans, were never in need of refurbishing, or city-museumifying).

I do not look French. I’ve decided there are two types of native French – there are the ones like Solène who have wide set eyes, and little noses, or there are ones who have big noses and tinier eyes, and they both are not without their charm when all the genetics work out. I don’t really have either of these looks going for me. But it’s cool.

Holy crap, there are a lot of cafes, and they’re very intimidating.

My Italian future roommate likes the Mississippi river she says. (?!?) And she wants the internet, and to improve her American Accent (my ability to speak American English - or just English I suppose - is really giving me some currency value). I wonder if I can actually help her speak better. She will definitely learn how to say, "i know, huh?" and "I mean, hey." along with "I mean..." and of course "OMG." Not sure if these will help with her accent, but they will give her mad street cred.

Emerique, a french dude I met at solene's freind's dinner party, thinks the south is more open minded than other places in US, and he thinks Katrina is just as bad (if not worse) as 9-11 – especially since we could see it coming. I agree. It’s funny, b/c just the day before I read Blythe’s post about pretty much the same thing and was like, “whoa, how come I have not thought of that.” There's a semi-good article in the DP about a girl who gave up her consulting job in california to work in new orleans, and she sounds super cool.
Yes, i have facebook messaged her.

Side note: there's not congress in france! I don't think the parlaiment is the same.
No French understand how you can have 2 candidates in a presidential election (though they end up having 2), nor do they understand that its usually the same w/ two pretty moderate people. I believe they don't think they understand, but they do. Though they had Chirac “the robber” and LePen “the Hitler” so that’s extremes. They really do call him hitler here. He's a bad dude. And then there is this year probably a flip floppy candidate and a sorta scary right wing guy who buys a lot of advertising and has a lot of money backing him up. Sound familiar to you? Sounds familiar to me – only the flip floppy candidate is a (pretty) woman. Ooo.

Another note on the The French American idol-meets-big-brother – um, no one can sing. Is it just the French voice? Are the bars lowered? Like, no one sounds good to me. All nasal head –voice crap. No soul. Speaking of which, I rock the gospel – "oh happy day" to be exact -- (and a can do a mean Hopelessly Devoted to You), with Phillipe, Agnes’ husband, on piano! We have as close to an old fashioned revival as you can in a 600 year old French apartment that was built by Venitians.

I met a girl down the hall, her name’s Constance or something (yeah, I forgot), and she says apartments are easier to find mid October…so that’s only a month! Then 7 months of chillin’ at night. If you know me, you know I like to be out at night, lookin’ at people and trippin’ on uneven bricks and whatnot.