Summation

Last Last Weekend: Happy Chinese New Year! Parades and people crowding around hôtel de ville and chinatown. Dragons, banners, firecrackers, painted chinese peoples and many curious french peoples. Met my biology tutor. He's the awesomest. My host mom hit my last nerve by officially ousting my two things out of the shower and yelling at me for not asking her to if I could put something in the fridge. Basically my old host fam was mad bourgeois.. old, beautiful appartment with a piano. My desk was a veritable bureau from olden times. Everything they bought was "bio" (translate, very expensive). I had lamb, veal and rabbit for dinner. Too many rediculous rules (can't use the piano when they're home, can't keep anything in the fridge or freezer, can't eat breakfast after 11 am without being scolded, can't go out without being criticized) and general hostility towards me.

Chapter 2, last week: Monday I got out of that shiz. Basically sneak attacked my host family by giving them exactly one hour notice I was leaving. Then I was gone. Let's just say I felt awkward. There's no word in french for awkward. The french are never awkward, always right. Did you know that there is no such thing as a synonym in french? Multiple words only exist on differing levels of sophistocation. Drove by the eiffel tower at night in transit. It was all blue and sparkly. It was surreal, like being on LSD. I felt like Carrie Bradshaw, without the dog poop on my louboutins. New home: 16e - by far the most chi chi residential neighborhood. New host mom is really nice and extremely lively. She has a fat bulldog named Maidemoiselle Zou Zou. TV, my own entrance and bathroom and half a wall comprised of window looking out onto the beautiful, bright terrace.

Last weekend: Excursion to see les chateaux de la loire. Frolicked Complained in the snow at Cheverny. Bought almond cookies to share. We heard one of the precocious royal children playing the grand piano upstairs. Excited the hunting dogs, one of whom thought my umbrella nub was a delicious nipple. Next castle: Blois. Grounds sucked so we did a guerilla fashionshoot (translate: stalked my friends with my camera). Stayed at the town of blois. Went ghetto and brought bread, cheese and yogurt for dinner. Stayed in the hotel room and told stories and blagues until we cried. The next castle was Chenonceau. Breathtaking and finally the castle we had been dreaming about. Misty woods and deathly quiet trails. A 16th century farm with inhabitants intact. River running around the castle, gardens, labyrynth and topiary were all there. Discreetly beaconed the mules over to the fence so we could kiss them. Tried to steal.. too big. Fed Nikos a cracker instead. Only thing missing was the distressed maiden and a chauvanistic dragon. In the last town of Amboise (see photo above), we saw leonardo da vinchi's house and invaded private property - houses growing out of the mountain sides. Cobblestone roads and chickens cooped up on the door step. Sang "Oops I did it again" in french on the bus ride home. (Up, je l'ai encore fait..)

This week: Finally started real classes yesterday. My advisor put me in the hardest level of academic writing. Knew it wasn't meant to be when we were informed our whole semester would revolve around Jean Paul Sartre (see: existentialism) and a paper due every week. Definitely dropping down a level. Made a jog in the woods by the 16e (Bois de Boulogne). Went back to fripstarr (detailed review later) and bought interesting silk scarves for 1 euro each. Got a cute camel leather purse for 5 euro.

As always, see my flickr for more pictures. Or facebook for people and me as a muppet.

Stay tuned for How to Dress like a Parisienne and chronicles of designer and vintage thrifting.