BrentInParis

2008-02-02T09:58:00.000Z

Bikes and Iranians on Capitol Hill

There’s this place in Seattle called Capitol Hill. In sight but not easy reach from SPU, its magnificent houses and distinctly European feel has always intrigued me, but lacking a direct bus route my visits have been few and far between.

But tonight was different. Tonight I had a bike and five friends.

We journeyed up the daunting hill to a beautiful independent movie theatre showing the French film “Persepolis,” a graphic-novel turned movie about growing up in Iran. Beautiful film. Makes you really question the morality behind what leaders the US has chosen to support in the past. Was helping overthrow an autocrat simply to have the country turn into an oppressive theocracy a good idea? Not so sure…

Our attention then turned to finding a coffee shop, which in Seattle isn’t terribly difficult, but finding one to accommodate 6 people on a Friday night is. With some searching we settled on Ladro, the hip Seattleite café known for its orange cups and terrific coffee.

Sitting and talking made me realize how blessed I am here. I have a group of friends who care enough about me to invite me to a movie, and systematically go through their bike-loving friends until they found a bike I could use. I have a group of friends who are much more intelligent than myself, a group that I have a lot to learn from, a group that makes me laugh and reminds me of how being in community lights the fire of joy in my heart.

On the ride home, with the cold wind biting my face, I realized how great it is to be alive , to be in Seattle, to breathe in the crisp winter air, to get off campus, and see the Northwest stars.

But most of all I realized that I need a bike.

2007-11-29T05:13:00.000Z

Thanksgiving...and stuff.

Thanksgiving last year=lonely, at school, pity party.

Thanksgiving this year=fun, friends, good food, beautiful environment, relaxation, sleep, pleasure reading.

Can you tell which one I prefer?

Anyways, to escape from vague terms like "beautiful environment," I'll let you know how my thanksgiving was spent. (Mostly through pictures).

We (Marissa, Tyler, Lerin, Hannah, Myself) spent Thanksgiving day at Lerin's Granddad's house on Puget Sound, near Port Ludlow, WA.

Chuck (her Granddad) built the house by hand, and it's location is impeccable. A stone's throw from the beach, with beautiful white capped mountains in the background, and intense, blue water in the foreground.

He had a Ham radio, which he didn't hesitate to explain in detail (and practice) to me and Tyler. I love the wealth of information stored up in old people, and it seems like a very simple task to have it all pour out: ask a question, and listen as they indulge you for as long as they feel necessary.

I am not good with names. As evidenced by my misstep in calling Lerin's mom, who had introduced herself to me as Carolyn, Deborah. I'm not sure where I pulled that name from. Not sure at all.

We rode a ferry back to Seattle. First time for me on a ferry. It was breathtaking, in several ways. First, the cold, fast winds that whipped us as we looked out over the rails. Second, the haze covered Mount Rainier towering over a silhouetted Seattle skyline.

Now we're back at school. Just over a week left. This week's been pretty silent, but the guns should start going off Friday when I get my Finals assignments and the reality of studying hits.

Here are some pictures (Marissa took most of them) from the weekend.

http://spu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001161&l=dbb0a&id=1076310089

http://spu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=65349&l=ca24b&id=1058250068

sorry, it wouldn't let me put any on blogger, and it wouldn't let me create a web album. so you'll have to deal with facebook.

Much Love,

Brent

2007-11-04T07:07:00.000Z

I am now without beard.

Completely shorn for the first time in about three years; prepared for a November without shaving, celebrated by many across the nation.

I took my transformation into a 12 year old boy (which i was for halloween) in stages.

I first stopped at the awkward 15 year old moustache stage for a day, to go to the Brand New concert.

Then in finished off the shave, while annihilating my sensitive neck in the process.

That's pretty much as exciting as my life has been in the last little while.

2007-10-03T02:13:00.000+01:00

Hello all,

Here are some pictures from my first couple weeks here at school.

Enjoy the pictures.

Brent

2007-09-23T01:19:00.000+01:00

Hi

My Mommy came to visit me at school.

Yay!

Here are pictures
'

http://picasaweb.google.com/BrentinParis/MommyComeVisit

Brent

2007-09-16T20:20:00.000+01:00

Hello All.

Sorry I abruptly stopped my blogging at the end of May. June was heinously busy; filled with a visit from the parents, an unexpected visit from a friend from the States, the loss of a wallet, a trip to Lisbon and Spain, then many goodbyes.

Coming home was amazing. Although I do periodically miss France, 'adjusting' to life in the United States took little to no effort as I was surrounded by those I love most. I was able to work at Camp Elim for 3ish weeks, find my new career in giving plasma, and visit Wyoming on a road trip with Tyler.

This blog is just to update you (for the last time) on the happenings in my life. I just moved in to my room, which I'll be sharing with tyler, at Seattle Pacific University. Life is good. I'm excited for the new year to start and to experience the adventure that is college.

Thanks so much for all your support throughout the year. It meant a lot to me. And thanks for your commitment to reading my sometimes not very interesting blogs.

I love you all and hope you all the best!

(click this link to see pictures of the new dorm room) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000971&l=d15cd&id=1076310089

All the best,

Brent

2007-05-22T21:42:00.000+01:00

“To the left, to the left…”

I’m trying to write this blog while listening to Irreplaceable by Beyoncé, but it’s not working very well, because I just have this constant urge to dance, but can’t because my host dad’s in the next room, and then by the time I settle down and look at my Microsoft Word screen the song is done and I am forced to start it again.

I am currently in the process of preemptively packing all of my things because of my host brother’s arrival from Brazil on Thursday. I don’t really like packing. I have way too many books.

These blogs should really get written more often, because after a certain point I don’t feel like doing them because so much has happened and I tell myself it will be too hard to explain it all. This is one of those times. But here I am. Typing away.

Two Saturdays ago (the 12th), my school had this ‘oversized gathering’ (aka party) with another school at a club here in Paris. A couple exchange student friends came with me, which saved me as I would have been forced to dance to techno all night with my French friends. But as any good American is trained to dance to rap because of high school dances, we had fun dancing how we wanted. We are exchange students, so we do what we want anyways. It was extremely hot and I perspired copiously. But, you’ll be pleased to know I cut my hair yesterday for the first time since December, so if it so happens that you are dancing near me in the near future, I will be sweating much less. Our night was filled with much more than sweat. It also included fun, confrontation with French people who didn’t like my enthusiastic dancing during 50 Cent, falling asleep in the grass next to an old church while waiting for the Metro to open, and many laughs.

As I got home around 6 in the morning, I slept as much as possible on Sunday (which means until 1 o clock, when my host dad called me for lunch). My friend Elizabeth (exchange student from Cali who was on my EuroTour) was in town with some other exchange students, as she was leaving a few days after for the states. We hung out in a park and then got kicked out because of a severe weather warning, although the sky was perfectly blue and it was sunny out. Go figure.

That night I had an amazing Table Group at Justin’s house. Justin, Taro, Jean (his name is really spelt NDJsomethinsomethin, but I’m not going to even attempt it, although I just did) and I had a great time picking apart 1 John and throwing ideas off each other. Taro brought some German sausages and German beer, which we consumed with pleasure. All a night really needs is some 1 John, German gastronomy, and community.

Thursday was a holiday (although I’m not sure which one, all I know is that I got out of school, which is all I really need to know). Signe (exchange student from Iowa in northern France) was here with some other exchange students (including my friend Lorca from N.Carolina). We sat talking near the Eiffel tower for a while, then did the European thing and got Kebab for lunch, all the while meeting another exchange student Sarah (in my district, from S. Carolina) in the process. We then walked around Montmartre. Sarah left, Signe and I got cheap pints, and then I went home and ate. Successful day.

My good friend Andrew from church was on vacation in China until Thursday, and I hadn’t seen him since Easter, so it was high time Friday night for a reunion. We went to a bar with some of his fellow Fulbright scholar friends, then made an intensely late (but delicious) dinner for one of his friends and her boyfriend who had just arrived that night from Ecuador.

I thought I was saved from waking up early on Saturdays as I finished with my sport class last week, but Saturday morning started at a solid 7:30 in order to meet Andrew and Paul at 8:30 to pick up our bikes for our excursion into the forest. We had been talking about doing something with just us guys for a while, so it felt relieving Saturday as Andrew, Paul, Taro and I got on the train to Fontainebleu (château outside of Paris) to spend a day riding bikes through the forest and enjoying each others’ company. The whole biking aspect turned out to be a bit more difficult as expected, as fold-up city bikes with tiny tires and wheels aren’t exactly designed to perform on forest trails made for mountain bikes. Our optimistic expectations for finishing the 5 hour loop in 4 quickly turned into constant comments on my part concerning how imperative it was we stop for food, and constant ‘let’s just find this spot’ by our German-Japanese tracker, Taro. We stopped for the long awaited picnic in a boulder field, and just spent time talking, watching lizards, and trying to take group photos. Riding through the forest made me realize how much I miss the outdoors. Sometimes in Paris I just feel so cooped up and claustrophobic because of all the gray buildings that seem to constantly encircle me. It’s really good to get out and smell the roses every once in a while, even though we didn’t see any roses.

(Almost done). Sunday we had a church wide lunch. I discovered that Leffe Brune is infinitely better than Leffe Blonde. I also realized that I’m going to miss the beautiful people at my church more than I know. (beautiful as in, their hearts, not as in ‘I’m only going to miss the good looking people at my church). We also make good food as a church (well, not me…they), which I will equally (not really equally) miss.

I’ve lost all motivation in school. It feels good.

Brent

27 days

2007-05-12T10:33:00.000+01:00

…And On Saturday Morning I Write Blogs

If I put my week in a box it would resemble this.

Cinco de Mayo. Mmm is the only word I can think of when reflect on last Saturday’s greatness. I had a burrito for the first time in over 8 months. For those of you who know me and my love for burritos, you can guess that I was pretty ecstatic to break that involuntary burrito fast. I went to this quasi-American/Mexican restaurant called Indiana with Tina (goes to American University in Paris/my church) and one of her friends. We had awful service…but I had a burrito (washed down with a typically Mexican corona) which trumps all (burritos wipe away tears). We stole matchboxes and spent our walk to the Gelato place flicking matches. After meeting some more of her friends and watching the girls attempt to climb this sculpture of a head, we had as Tina would say “the best gelato in Paris.” I guess it was pretty good, but I’m not gelato expert, I just judged by the simple fact that it tasted similar to the gelato I had in Italy.

Moving on, Sunday I met up with Brittney (exchange student in Beauvais) for Free Museum Sunday in Paris, where we managed to choose two of the few museums that weren’t free to attempt to visit. Not all was lost, as our third pick was a charm (the Centre Pompidou). As it is the modern art museum in Paris, we had some fun playing the “what is the meaning of this painting?” game. After she headed off I met up with Taro from church to munch on Falafel. For those of you who didn’t know, there was an election Sunday night in Paris, so Taro and I were interested to see if we could find large groupings of people so we could watch some mischief happen. Taro, being an architect, suggested we check out the Socialist Party headquarters, which was designed by Fredrich Niemeyer (who I guess is a famous architect). Confused at our arrival by the absence of people, it took a few minutes to realize that it was in fact the Communist headquarters we were looking at. Socialist, Communist, sometimes even the best of us confuse them. After seeing some interesting architecture (but no riots), we had a beer at a hoppin’ café/bar. Taro is amazing. If you ever get the chance, hang out with him.

My cousin Melanie came Monday through Tuesday, and my history teacher’s absence made it possible to spend the whole day with her Monday. We haven’t seen each other in almost two years, so it was awesome to catch up on what we’ve been doing in our lives. We had some Kebab then walked around Montmartre. As I arrived at her hotel a few minutes after she did, she was a bit jet lagged, so we headed back to her hotel where we took naps/watched a documentary on the foreign unit of the French Legionnaires (yes, contrary to popular belief, France does have some semblance of an army). We then picnic dinnered by the Eiffel Tower and proceeded to watch an interesting French movie. I spent a good part of the movie translating for Melanie, as although she took French immersion, had a little trouble understanding (but I had trouble as well, as it felt like half the actors were speaking with croissants in their mouths). I’m not sure if the people behind us appreciated it, but oh well.

Tuesday was a pubic holiday, therefore I didn’t have school. Melanie’s plan was to visit the Louvre (which I forgot was closed) in the morning and then meet up with me later. The Louvre was not open, so she had to just chill for a couple hours then try to figure out my awfully confusing drawing of the Louvre to figure out where to meet me. After a short walk, we met up with Paul from my church to go on one of his amazing bike tours. Melanie’s maladroit-ness on the bike aside, we had a wonderful time seeing/discovering Paris with Bike About Tours (http://www.bikeabouttours.com/). If you are ever in Paris, go on one of their tours. You get to see the city in such a different light than you do walking as well as learn as much as you need in a few hours to appreciate the city. Tuesday night was another fantastic, multicultural dinner at Paul’s. Of those who ate, there were one American, one American/Canadian (me), a Canadian, a Kiwi, a Japanese/German, an Irishwoman, and two of Paul’s French roommates. Conversations flowed somewhat randomly from English to French as all of us “foreigners” spoke French. The sense of community was amazing, as it is every time Paul has others over for dinner. There is power in a meal-shared.

The rest of my week was comfortably slow. I discovered some things. Like that I can save money by buying frozen food for lunch and cooking it at friends’ houses. Or that spending a few hours reading with a glass of wine in a café is a perfectly appropriate way to spend a Thursday (and Friday) afternoon. But most importantly I learned that, senioritis is most definitely worse the second time around, and that these three weeks of school that remain may be the hardest/longest of the year. Oh high school, I’ve had enough of you for one lifetime, please leave me alone.

37 days.

Brent

2007-05-05T15:57:00.000+01:00

3 weeks of vacation and 6 weeks to go

As you see from the pictures in my last blog entry…I had a pretty amazing time to say the least on my Euro Tour. You can all thank me for learning my lesson about overly wordy blogs when I wrote about my Spain trip, so thus I will not be paining you with 6+ pages of intense details of my trip. Instead, I will succinctly summarize its greatness.

11 days
44 exchange students
Cities visited: Strasbourg, Munich, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Venice, Loano, Monaco, Cannes, Cassis, Marseilles, Lyon, Annecy, Geneva, Dijon
Theme song: What Goes Around by Justin Timberlake
Pictures taken: 1174
Average hours of sleep: 3-4

That actually doesn’t give really any insight into my trip, sorry. The pictures do a much better job of explaining, just look at those. In any case, know this romp around Europe goes down in the books as my most memorable experience from this year.

I got home at 4:30 last Friday from Euro Tour and left at precisely 5:35 in order to catch my train for St Nom la Breteche, a small town outside of Paris where I was staying the night with my YEO and Leo (the Brazilian in Paris) before our district’s weekend in Normandy. We ate really good crêpes with my YEO’s German friends and I wowed them with my vast knowledge of several useless German phrases which include “I bought this pen” and “I dropped my fork.”

The next morning we were off to the D-Day beaches in Normandy, which was quite an experience. We started off by watching a 360 degree film about the landings, then went down to a museum by the beach in Arromanches. The intense fog that surrounded the beach was fitting of its history, and made seeing a beach where so many young men died that much more powerful. But we did not stay somber the whole day, as we took full advantage of these free (free as in liberated not as in without cost) beaches to dig our feet in, get a little wet, and laugh. I think the soldiers who died there would find it appropriate that a group of 12 exchange students from around the world, whose countries were on both sides of the war (my YEO is German along with a girl in my district), could come together and enjoy the gift of freedom that they gave.

After the beaches, we headed over to the American cemetery a few miles away. This was even more powerful than the beaches, with line after line of white crosses testifying to the horrible toll the war had. It was also amazing to be there with the German exchange student, as we talked about how awful that part of history was but both shared brighter views for the future. After the American cemetery was the German cemetery. I found it more touching because of a simple detail on the gravestones of the German soldiers, their birthdates. Whereas on the American crosses only the day of death is mentioned, you notice with the German gravestones how truly young the soldiers were. It seemed like almost half were 18 or 19. It is just astounding to think about how different life is now. Using the example of Rike the German exchange student, at her age 60+ years ago she would be fighting in France against the French, whereas now she is acting as a goodwill ambassador there and living with a French family.

Anyways, the next day we visited a Castle built in the late 1100s by Richard the Lionheart and picnicked near there.

Tuesday was a Holiday in France, and therefore I was not obligated to attend school (although if I could just make that non-obligation continue until June 1st my joy would be made complete), so a few exchange students and I tanned in a Park, and then went and saw Das Leben Der Anderen/La Vie des Autres/The Lives of Others. It was a extremely well made and thought provoking film. See it.

Thursday I went and saw Gorgias by Plato (which is a book but was made into a play) with my Philosophy class. It was really hot in the theatre. I sweated a lot. I fell asleep a couple times. But overall it was pretty good.

Last night was really fun. My friend Guillaume and I did a little shopping after school, then we met his girlfriend and saw SpiderMan III. We went to McDonald’s after, and for my first time this year, got a beer with my BigMac meal. Although honestly I think coke goes a little better with a BigMac. Guillaume and I walked home because it was a slightly crisp and beautiful night. He is definitely one of the people at my school that I will be missing the most when I leave. Bref, I had a great time hanging out with him yesterday and speaking French. Did I mention I’m going to miss speaking French too?

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Brent

2007-04-30T17:51:00.000+01:00

EuroTour!!!

Here are some pictures from my frolicking around Europe with 44 other Rotary Exchange Students from April 16-27

Enjoy!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/BrentinParis/EuroTourParisToVenice

http://picasaweb.google.com/BrentinParis/EuroTourVeniceToDijon

2007-04-11T20:25:00.000+01:00

Cheers Here’s to Life (on Vacation)

Last week a couple of my friends from the first bus trip, Jim and Zach, came up to Paris early for their bus trip that was leaving on Thursday. So we hung out. Tuesday we met up with an exchange student from Canada who is going on their bus trip, and Wednesday with a Colombian exchange student who was visiting Paris. Good times.

The sound of my alarm Friday morning wasn’t very appealing to my ears, so I turned off the alarm and fell back asleep, waking up at 9:00, exactly when my class was starting. While explaining this to my host mom I was interrupted by the beautiful sentence “oh, don’t worry Brent, I’ll just call you in sick and you can come to Good Friday Mass at Sacré Coeur with me.” The service was a lot different than the somber, candle lit services I am used to. There was simply a lot of singing (no Spencer, we did not sing “our God is an awesome God”). It was peaceful to sing songs, and it was something I really enjoyed although I may have spent more time focusing on my French pronunciation then on what the words really meant. All of this was of course sweetened by the fact that I was in the process of missing 4 hours of science labs, and that the only class between me and vacation was one hour of math later that afternoon. After math I went to Parc Monceau and read for a while, then a little later I met my friends to surprise our other friend Marion for her birthday. We threw her a hoppin’ party, and the night consisted of dancing, fun conversations with friends and new acquaintances, me being hungry as I hadn’t eaten yet, music, and well, an all around super-duper time.

Saturday. I stayed at Andrew’s house because my host parents left for the weekend. We ate Panini. He left. I watched “Ensemble c’est tout”, a French movie with Audrey Tautou (that sentence rhymes by the way). I ate Doëner. I slept.

For Easter, my church went down about an hour south of Paris to the country home of the parent’s of a member of the church. We had a traditional Jewish Seder meal on the Sunday outside in the beautiful sun and warmth. The Seder meal is for Passover, but it works as well for Easter because of all the parallels between the story of Passover (the blood of the Lamb etc) and Easter (Jesus=Lamb of God). The food and fellowship were amazing both Sunday and Monday. Monday I was a little tired after sleeping in a maximum five foot bed Sunday night. The length of this bed also did not help my legs, decimated as they were by the intense soccer match played Sunday. Monday night Andrew and I kicked it at his house, ate some pizza that reminded me of Positano’s (but did not completely reach that level of greatness) and watched 24 and the Office.

It has been gorgeous here in Paris for the last couple weeks, which suits (or creates?) my intensely joyous mood lately. Just thought all you suffering through cold weather in the states ought to know that. In light of this gorgeous weather, yesterday I went to the Musée Rodin. Rodin was a sculptor in the 19th century, and his work is displayed both inside the museum and outside in the garden (thus justifying my going to museum on a beautiful day). The museum is amazing. I fell asleep reading outside on the grass. That night, Andrew’s parents took me, Paul, and Taro out for dinner. Andrew picked out the restaurant, called “Le Timbre”, which means “the stamp” and is called that because it is so small. The staff consists of a cook and a waitress, but the food and atmosphere are impeccable (despite being surrounded almost completely by other English speakers). It was probably one of the last times I’ll get to be with Andrew, Taro and Paul all together, so although it was amazing, it was a little bittersweet at the same time, knowing that my time here is slowly depleting. In other news, after almost 8 months in France I still struggle drinking red wine and keeping it off my lips and/or glass. That is on my list of things to learn before I leave. Along with hangliding. And quilting.

Almost done. Today Melanie (exchange student from New Brunswick) and I went to explore the Versailles Gardens (which are free), as we are too cheap and it was too nice out to warrant a visit in the actual museum. It was such a relaxing day. We vented about the French school system, walked around, fell asleep near the canal (where I got semi-sunburned), ate Sherbet, and eavesdropped on adolescent British girls with funny accents. Solid day. Man do I love vacation.

Brent!

2007-04-02T19:14:00.000+01:00

I Roll With the Cripz

So I pretty much can’t believe it’s already April.

In other news, I am doing pretty much amazing. Paris in the springtime is gorgeous. I have a week of school until my three week vacation. Bref, I am loving life.

This weekend was one for the books. Friday after school Victor and I walked around and talked, then I went and saw the 300 with my friends Guillaume and Marine. I thought I was sitting next to Johnny Depp the entire time, but finalement when the lights were on it was most definitely not him. I was a bit disappointed.

Waking up Saturday for Badminton really melted my butter, but I only have 2 sessions left, which excites me. Not having any plans in particular for daytime Saturday, I was very happy when Brie, an exchange student just outside Paris, called and wanted to hang out. So Brie, Rebecca (from Cali) and Rike (Germany) hung out most of the day Saturday, eating, walking in the rain, smoking hookah, and eating the most amazing, fresh out of the oven baguettes. That was a once in a lifetime baguette.

That night was similarly amazing. I went to the largest apartment in the history of history for dessert with friends from school, as it was a girl’s birthday party. They are a close group of friends and are super funny and great to hang out with. We then went to this kind of chic, bourgeois, “I’m Parisian and spend my parent’s money” bar where you drink cocktails out of baby bottles. There was a competition where trivial pursuit questions were asked in order to win suckers, and I won two. Take that French people and the stereotype of American ignorance. I got home at 3. I wasn’t really tired. Good night it ‘twas.

The sun was shining nicely Sunday morning for the picnic my church was having at the Jardins de Luxembourg. My friend Andrew and I played an awkward version of Pickle with some little girls from the church and these two French boys. It was really hot. The sun. Not the game of pickle. Andrew and I then went to a cemetery near by (Parisian cemeteries are the bomb diggity) and talked for a long time. It was amazing.

Usually on Mondays I have a history class with the Juniors (Premieres) from two till four, but as they were taking a test today, my teacher said I could learn the French “of the bistros.” I took this grand opportunity on this fine Spring day to walk to the Eiffel Tower, which took about an hour, where after several miscommunications I met up with some friends from my first bus tour, who were in Paris for their Euro tour. It was great to see them again, if only for a little bit. I then proceeded to lay in the grass under the warm sun and read. Perfection.

And that my friends, is how I roll with the cripz.

Brent

2007-03-28T19:22:00.000+01:00

Tour Guidin’

This is going to be as short as I can make it.

For the last week and a half I’ve been playing tour guide in Paris, first for my best friends Evan and Kyle who came Friday before last (March 16th) and then for some Rotary kids who are studying in Poland (Spencer and Alyssa).

And the recap.

Evan got in on Friday at 6:30 AM, so I called in sick to my school (oh the perks being “majeur” in France can bring), and picked him up. If you know Evan and I, you know we haven’t been away from each other for probably more than 2 or 3 weeks in the past 9 years, so after almost 7 months apart I can easily say it was amazing to see him. We went for a beastly walk around the city, taking pictures of a random Romanian Orthodox man that I still need to send him (at this real address in Romania, as he had no email), meeting Andrew for falafel (a very appropriate cheap and fast food option in Paris), then going to Montmartre, then planning on going to the Louvre but then after searching for a place to eat, and having Evan be constantly drifting into sleep, we called it a night and went home. Evan slept for 15 hours.

Andrew and I went to an awesome market by his house and made lunch for sleepy Evan, after which we picked up Kyle from the airport (YAY KYLE!), walked, and then celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day with Andrew and some of his teaching assistant friends. Let’s just say we got home at 4 in the morning after an adventurous time trying to find night buses but then bowing out and taking a taxi.

Sunday consisted of the Père Lachaise cemetery, waiting for Kyle to take pictures, walking, searching for an Indian restaurant on Montmartre with Nikki but settling for Tibetan (crazy ethnic food lovers).

Monday I unfortunately had to wake up and go to school. But Kyle and Evan met me for lunch, where we had scrumptious döner right by my school, and got served free tea, which officially made me a lifetime customer. Tyler was on his bus trip with his Rotary, and they were in Paris from Monday till Thursday, and as their chaperones consist of 4 ex-exchange students, we got to see a lot of him. 3 of my best friends, all in Paris at the same time, who would have thought!? Monday, Tyler’s group decided to take forever and a half to get to the Eiffel tower, so Evan, Kyle and I had to bear the cold while waiting for the incompetent Germans to find their way there. Then I went to sleep cause I had school in the morning L

I had my interview with SPU Tuesday for the full tuition scholarship, which went really well, and I find out April 17th so now comes the wait! But I met my friend-os after school, then we went with all the exchange students to this Brazilian bar, where much fun was had.

Sadly that was Evan and Kyle’s last night, so Wed I met up with them after school and we ate and said our goodbyes. I know it may sound like we didn’t do that much, but just seeing these boys made me so unbelievably happy that anything we did together was amazing. I was so happy they could come. Such a great time. But I met Tyler and exchange student co. at a café, then I went to Taro’s house and had this delicious Japanese dish that he made because his house was conveniently located right next to Tyler’s hostel. Then I remet up with Tyler and we went with the other exchange students to a Salsa Bar, where much fun was had, a sad goodbye was said, and I had to catch a night bus home and go to school the next day. Freaking school.

Thursday was my day off, aka day in between company leaving and company coming.

Friday Spencer (who is from Douglas, Wyoming, in my district from back home, and in Poland) and Alyssa (from Connecticut, also in Poland) came and I commenced my second tour guiding adventure. We went for a walk (I honestly walked more this last week then I ever have before in my life), got falafel, accidentally went into a gay bar, stayed in the gay bar, and walked around.

Brittney (from Connecticut, exchange student in Beauvais) came in for the day Saturday. We had a sweet picnic under the Eiffel tower, where I tried to throw a wine bottle at a pigeon and it exploded. (the wine bottle was empty, by the way). We then spent four amazing hours in a Hookah bar, filled with amazing and honest exchange student conversation and Spencer surpassing his master in blowing smoke rings. Brittney sadly had to leave, but we made the most of it by going to the Eiffel tower and pretending we were Polish while befriending Polish people.

Feeling French Sunday, we decided to get Mcdonald’s take out and eat at the Jardins de Luxembourg. We then walked. It was beautiful out. The first real day of Spring. I love Paris in the springtime! Then we went and ate curry at Paul’s house with my home group. I got to share my friends with my other friends. Yay!

Monday they met me for lunch, where we picnicked at the beautiful Parc Monceau right near my school. Bread and Cheese. What else is needed in life? The sun was shining, it was gorgeous. Perfect day. After school we went and sat by the banks of the Seine and talked, met some more Polish people, ate some more McDonalds, met a Polish guy there, walked, fell asleep on the grass near Notre Dame, then went home.

Tuesday they left, but that didn’t stop them from bring bread, cheese and wine for lunch! We ate. It was fantastic. Then I saw them off. It was sad to have friends leave again, but I was ready for the rest. Today and yesterday I’ve taken much needed naps. I ate a hamburger with Andrew on Montmartre today and got awful service. But it was on Montmartre, and with Andrew, so I couldn’t complain.

And that’s my life in a box.

Brent

2007-03-08T21:46:00.000Z

A Blog Concerning the Happenings and Circumstances during the interval of [Return from Bus Trip; Return to School]

The reason I haven’t written in so long is twofold: first to give all of you who dared to read my epic (concerning it’s length, not exactly it’s amazing content) recantation of my week in Spain, and second because my internet chez moi has not been working L. I’ll keep this recap of what I’ve been up to since getting back from Spain as short as I can. In fact, I am going to take the format of Tyler’s blog and give it to you in easy, numbered points.

1. Got home, then directly had to pack back up and leave as my host parents were leaving for the weekend and I was staying at a friend’s then going to Brussels from Monday to Wednesday.

2. Stayed at Paul from my church’s house Friday night, wanted to sleep, but it was a bit difficult with the party that his roommates threw going on at full boar.

3. Saturday an exchange student Colleen who I met on the aeroplane coming here was in Paris with her host parents before she went on her bus trip, so I got my second of three free meals provided by the (host) parents of exchange student friends visiting Paris. Although it was weird talking to Colleen in French through lunch (I have an aversion to speaking to people who’s first language is English in French), we got our English time in on the walk to the Louvre. It was so great to talk to her, as it is to all exchange students. Thanks Colleen! Lets hope this trend continues. Love it. Stayed at Victor’s house Sat night. We went to a club on a boat with some friends. We did speed dating. Let’s just say I never thought I’d ever go speed dating, let alone in French. Although I didn’t find my true love and soul mate, it did provide a good laugh and good story (it’s all about the story).

4. Sunday caught up on some needed rest, then met Victor and co. for a Chinese dinner. Went to bed, and got up at 5ish to catch my train for Brussels.

5. Brussels does not have the best weather, but is a beautiful city. Kelsey (an exchange student from Vermont) kindly showed me around town and let me stay at his house. It was great to have some more exchange student contact. Exchange students=my favorite people. Thanks for a great time Kelsey!

6. Came home Wednesday to the sweet present of candy brought by Aunt Esther, Uncle Bruce, and cousin Lyndzi, who were visiting me, and were a present in themselves. It was so great to see family again, I forgot how comforting it feels to be around those that are related to you. We went on a bike tour with Bike About Tours provided by Christian, a guy at the church who started the company with Paul. Paris by bike is such an escape after spending so much time walking. If you come to Paris, go on their bike tours, I promise you’ll love it.

7. This week I’ve had the Bac Blancs at school (equivalent of massive mid terms) so I’ve been spending my nights semi studying and finding other ways besides the internet to procrastinate (Solitaire, listening to Rob Bell sermons, etc). But today (Wednesday) was awesome because I went out to lunch with an exchange student Katherine who I met on the bus trip, who is in Paris with her mom. Basically the statement by exchange student friends “Hey Brent, me and my (host) parents are going to be in Paris, and they want to take you out to lunch” has become one of my cherished treasures (as mentioned earlier, really hope that continues). As I get to 1. Hang out with exchange students. 2. Get to meet new people and have great conversation. And last but not least 3. I get a free meal. We were extremely loud at lunch to the enjoyment of the semi-creepy guy eating alone next to us and listening to our entire conversation. We laughed a lot. Merriment ensued. Thanks Becky and Katherine, I had an amazing time!

All I have to say is…life is good.

Oh, and Evan comes in a week. After spending 9 years together without being away from each other for more than a couple weeks apart, I could say I’m excited but that would be a vast understatement.

And to share a quote that randomly caught my attention from C.S Lewis, “Those who have nothing can share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow-travelers.”

I hope you all have something and are going somewhere.

Brent

2007-02-28T15:36:00.000Z

Bus Trip

Warning: This is extremely long. Maybe just read every other paragraph, and you'll get a good jist of my trip. Or take it in sittings, just like War and Peace, I think this blog will be better if you don't read it all at once then end up wanting to kill me by the end. and i'll post pictures later

Sorry this has taken so long to get up, but I have had limited time to write this since I got back from the bus trip. Without further ado…the story of my trip.

I wish I could write it in a more interesting fashion as opposed to just what we did everyday, but this is for my benefit of remembering as well, so you will have to deal with it, or you could just close your browser, you choice. This is going to be very long. I warn you right now.

Friday the 16th, I got up, grabbed my backpack and messenger bag and embarked on one of the best weeks of my life. Half of the exchange students met at one train station, and half at the other. Because of the amount of people that signed up they used two buses instead of the usual one, which was great because I got to meet a whole busload more people than I would have on a trip with just one bus. So us at Gare de Lyon kicked it for a few hours, as our bus was caught in traffic. Cards and greetings were exchanged, but it would take a couple days for everyone to become comfortable around each other and start really having fun. We took a pretty awful bus tour of Paris. Not my favorite part of the trip. Our free time was virtually non existent, but Zach, Jim (two other exchange students who came in on my plane) and I used our time to hang out with the Japanese and Chinese girls and take some fun pictures outside the Louvre. We hopped back on our bus for a 4+ hour journey to Dijon, which was made shorter by the presence of Zach’s speakers for his iPod. Zach and I sang every line to “What would you do?” by City High, and I attempted a singalong with the South Americans during Juanes. That night we had a welcome party, where everyone introduced themselves, and then danced the night away. The highlight of the dance was probably the 30 year old man who was staying in the hostel where we were; who decided that there probably wouldn’t be a better chance than this to pick up under aged women and joined in on the dancing. Awkward.

Saturday we got up early and drove 6ish boring hours to southern France to see the Pont du Gard, which is the largest surviving roman era aqueduct in the world. We took a guided tour and I should have paid more attention but it was somewhat boring. The coolest part was that we actually got to go into the aqueduct and walk through to the other side. Keep in mind that all this time, whenever we do a tour, or all the exchange students are together, there is a constant flow of amazing conversation, laughter, and fun. So even if something sounds boring, it probably wasn’t. Once we finished walking around and taking pictures we hopped back on the bus to head to Nîmes, where we were spending the night. As Nîmes was an ancient roman city, we had a fitting Roman dinner, complete with togas. Zach and I, always at the front end of fashion, forwent the given “togas” that we were supposed to wear and instead stripped our beds of the sheets and made ourselves some togas. We ate the semi-decent food with our hands (which was a relief after spending 6 months constantly worrying about my table manners). That night some of us hung out in a room, where Zach and Jim told one of the funniest stories ever, and Jim found out he has some capacity for good storytelling. Zach, Jim and I also had an experience that night in our room during our conversation with our roommate Nacho, as I was basically in tears laughing the entire time.
Sunday we got up, and did a tour of Nîmes. It was raining heavily, so I wore my Chacos, so I would just have wet feet and not wet socks. Basically what’s left of Rome in Nîmes is an old temple and a Roman arena, so there wasn’t too much to see, but we had some free time in the covered market in Nîmes to save us from the rain. After our tour we headed to España. Driving through mountains made me very happy, as looking at grey buildings 7 days a week can do damage to the spirit of someone from Colorado. We arrived in Lloret de Mar (hour outside of Barcelona) near dinnertime to our fantastic hotel which was located a short walk from the beach and complete with swimming pool, room/bar for dancing, and all-you-can-eat buffets for breakfast and lunch. Due to the prowess of Zach’s vision, we found out that there would be a Flamenco dancing show that night in the basement of the hotel. Let’s just say I wish I was man enough to dance Flamenco. Near the end we all got invited on stage and did a little dancing of our own, albeit far inferior to that of the salsa masters.

Monday we finally got to see Barcelona, which became very quickly dear to my heart. We spent most of the morning in a bus tour, which was interesting to a point, but mostly I spent it yearning to be able to get out and walk the streets of Barça. We had some free time at the top of a hill with a beautiful view of the city and the ocean. It was a gorgeous view accompanied by gorgeous, sunny weather, which we were treated to every day in Barcelona. We ate at a buffet near the beach, after which we had a few hours of free time in the center of the city. We walked down the Rambla (the large, pedestrian street in Barça) where we saw some street performers and some very cheap pets being sold. We had to resist Zach’s urge to buy some small rodent and let it loose on the bus. I think he may have made up for his inability to buy an animal by buying whatever exotic fruits he could at the market right off the Rambla. While at the market I had my first of two encounters with random drug dealers asking me to buy drugs on the trip. I bought a Cuban cigar from a store across the street, but it sucked. That night we smoked some Hookah as Gabby the Argentinian brought it, went and danced in the “club” in the basement of our hotel.

The next morning (being Tuesday) we had a tour of the FC Barcelona home stadium, which was okay. Seeing where star players get dressed isn’t exactly my cup of tea. We ate at another buffet (I ate so much on this trip) and then went to visit the Church of the Sagrada Familia, a modernist church by the famous Spanish architect Gaudi, which is still under construction. The church is amazingly planned out, with Gaudi taking hints from nature during his planning, with the inside acting as a kind of forest and the large beams on the outside shaped like Sequoias, among other things. The church was definitely my favorite site visited in Barcelona. It’s beautiful, and somewhat of a breather from the “normal” French churches that I’m used to seeing. That night some of us went down to the “beach” which was really a bunch of little rocks that obliterated my feet, and did some nighttime Mediterranean swimming. It was very cold. We didn’t swim long. On the way back, Jim and I got offered cocaine by a random guy on the street, thus my second drug dealer encounter. We made it out alive despite not buying any, and returned to the hotel for another night of dancing. We danced a lot that week.

Our final day in Barcelona, Wednesday, we visited a park designed by Gaudi, where we had free time to buy from the street vendors there (I got some 5 Euro “Armani” sunglasses), and admire the architecture. Again, it was gorgeous outside. Jim and I followed Posh English girls with ridiculous accents for a little, and then listened to some Spanish guitar in another part of the park. Oh, something I forgot to mention is that while in Barcelona, our buses were split up and our groups stayed at different hotels, so we didn’t see too much of each other, but we did have times together like at the stadium, and our time at the park overlapped. In that aspect I wish we would have spent more time as one large group, but it did allow the people on each bus to get to know each other better. We ate at McDonalds in Barcelona. I don’t know why. Then we went to the Picasso Museum, which was a let down mostly because one part of our bus had to spend 30-45 minutes waiting for a guide to come back to get let in, even though we really didn’t have to because there was a miscommunication. Waiting around was annoying to me because it cut into our last free time that we were going to have in Barça. But, as most worrying ends up, me stupidly being frustrated about free time meant nothing, as we got a lot of free time nonetheless, and Jim and I had one of my favorite experiences from the trip. Jim and I were walking down the Rambla, and all we heard was English and all we saw were people wearing red jerseys. We had forgotten FC Barcelona was playing Liverpool that day. Beer was everywhere, the Liverpool supporters were fired up and using the f word exceedingly. After walking for a bit, we stumbled upon a large place right off the street, where about a thousand Liverpool supporters were drinking, peeing, singing, and kicking soccer balls throughout the crowd. Jim and I stared in amazement at the sight presented to us, then went and bought a beer so we wouldn’t stand out too much. We had a random conversation with a guy from Liverpool, who thought we were speaking a different language at the beginning of our conversation. His friend with him, we understood not at all. Afterwards Jim and I wished we had been born in Liverpool. That night (the last one we would spend in a hotel) was kind of crazy. I won’t go into all the details, but there was swimming, dancing and fun to be had by all.

The last (tear) morning we drove to the Salvador Dali museum outside of Barcelona, where we took a tour. That man is crazy. But I love his art. Some of us decided to go all out and eat a big, Spanish, lunch for our last day, so a girl Eden and I split a “mixed grill” for two. Not knowing that Eden was vegan before she came, and not knowing that she was a little confused by the definition of “mixed grill”, I didn’t inform her that it meant “crapload of meat.” She ate a lot anyway, the good sport she is, and I tried some blood sausage, which despite it’s disgusting nature and aura, isn’t that bad. We explored the city a little and then headed back onto the bus. We drove to Montpellier where half the people got onto one bus heading to Lyon and another on a bus heading to Paris. It was time to say goodbye. Zach and I had a nice little farewell singing “N’importe quoi” with our South American friends we made on the trip, while Jim sat on the bus for an unknown reason. It was weird saying goodbye, because at this point in the trip everyone was just becoming comfortable with each other, just starting to have a really good time. So the only thing about the trip I can really complain about is that it should have been longer. We then loaded up on our bus to Paris, watched some movies, I slept in intervals of no longer than 30 minutes, had a great conversation with a Finnish girl named Nika and an American named Katherine, slept on the floor as our bus waited two hours in a parking lot no more than an hour outside of Paris because we were early and needed to wait for the place we were supposed to eat to open. After our unholy amount of time on the bus, we finally got to Paris, where saying goodbye was weird again. My return home was easier than those who had to wait at a train station then get on a 3 hour train home, so I was happy to return a short 30 minutes on the metro.

It’s very difficult for me to explain the utter amazingness and fun that I had on this trip. After writing all that, I think I failed miserably at portraying it’s amazingness. But those that went on the trip understand that despite some parts sounding boring, or some parts actually being boring, the entire trip was so amazingly fun. I know I’ve said amazing around 4 times, but it’s really the only word I can think of. Part of the fun comes from traveling to new and unseen places, but most of it comes from the people I met and the experiences we had together. As I’ve said time and time again, there is this unseen connection that every exchange student has with one another. It comes from the shared experiences, emotions and problems that every exchange student experiences. I was constantly amazed at the fact that with so many students from different backgrounds, cultures, and languages could be put on a bus, and have such camaraderie. Sitting on the bus I was struck by the relatively small amount of people that ever get this opportunity, to interact with and learn from so many different cultures at such a young age. After a week of hanging out and having fun with people from every part of the world, I realized how lucky I really was to have this experience. If there’s one thing I took from the trip, as my friend Brie put it, “this trip straight up made us international.” True that.

Brent

(If you read this entire thing, you should be applauded)

2007-02-14T15:11:00.000Z

Busy Little Birthday Bee

In place of working on the scholarship essay I should be writing, I am going to inform all of you what I’ve been up to the past week or so, as blogs are a little more off the top of the head and less stressful than real essays.

As you may or may not know, it was my birthday on the 8th, also known as last Thursday. Somewhat like my experience with Christmas, it didn’t exactly feel like my birthday on Thursday, but I was plagued by feelings of homesickness nonetheless. Basically just a weird feeling, which I should be getting used to by now, as even sometimes I walk around and ask myself if I really realize I’ve been living in Paris for the last 6ish months. That’s beside the point. I know you’re all eager to hear me list off what I did, so here it goes.

For lunch, Victor and I got some tasty and pretty cheap Indian food on Montmartre. A dog in the restaurant spilled a bowl of water the owner gave it to drink from. I resisted my urge to also spill the contents of my plate over the floor to see what treatment I would get compared to the dog, but after realizing that humans are rational beings and are held accountable for their actions, I held off. Actually, that thought never crossed my mind, I just needed a way to make the paragraph more interesting than simply saying I got Indian food, as even though I had a lot of fun, nothing adventurous or exciting happened so it seems boring writing it down. Anyways…

Rotary, being the great and caring organization they are, decided to organize a concert at the Sorbonne (oldest and most famous university in Paris) for my birthday. Or actually that’s probably more like on my birthday. It was a classical concert, and I learned the lesson that it’s better to be over dressed than under dressed in these situations, after taking ‘wear your rotary blazer’ to mean that it wasn’t too formal, I decided to wear jeans and then felt awkward the entire time. Lesson learned. Afterwards my Rotary counselor took me out to the oldest Parisian restaurant, Le Procope, which was founded in 1686. I tried a French culinary specialty, Tartare, which is raw, spiced meat. On the plate, it looks similar to pre-cooked hamburger meat, but in the mouth it tastes lovely. I’m sure you can find disgusting Tartare in France, but I figured at a classy restaurant they wouldn’t screw up too bad and thus give me food poisoning. I was right (as in them not screwing up), and the night was great with the meal ending at 1 in the morning after I had great discussion with my host counselors friends about topics ranging from the politics of the young to the War in Iraq.

I spent a total of probably 4-5 hours in cafés on Friday. After school some friends and I went to one, then went to a movie, Molière (about the famous French playwright) a few hours later. After the movie, we walked to another café where my friends surprised me with a cake for my birthday. I couldn’t stop smiling. To think that these people that I’ve known for less than 6 months would do something so loving to make me feel a little more at home gave me goose bumps. It was a good night.

Victor and I met up on Saturday afternoon and he took me out to a Japanese restaurant where we shared great food as well as great conversation. I proceeded to then kick it at my house, as I knew it would be my last calm night for a while.

I woke up Sunday and warmed up my cold pizza I had asked my host dad to save for me, which he found extremely bizarre, and then met my friend Brittney (exchange student in Beauvais) as she was meeting some of her exchange students in Paris to explore the catacombs. Her friends turned out to be amazing, and we proceeded to have an equally amazing day. First was the catacombs where we joked about the excess of bones and bone dust and were loud to the chagrin of Anna. After winding our way through over a mile of dark, bone infested, underground tunnel, we emerged to a gorgeous day. While walking by an outdoor market street, we had the wonderful idea to have a picnic. In true French fashion, this picnic consisted of two bottles of wine, 10 euros worth of cheese, chicken and 4 baguettes. We ate in a beautiful park all scrunched on a bench and reveled in our Frenchness. Some of us (and although I’m not going to name any names, I’ll specify that it wasn’t me) reveled a wee bit too much in the wine aspect of the Frenchness for our own good, which provided some entertainment for the rest of us during the remainder of the day, which consisted of exploring the famous cemetery Père Lachaise and spending some quality time in a café. So, Leah, Anna, Taylor, and Brittney, thank you guys so much for one of the most amazing Parisian days I’ve had.

Have I emphasized enough how thankful I am for the church I am a part of? On Monday night, three of my best friends from the church, Paul, Taro, and Andrew threw a little birthday celebration for me. Taro brought a cake with 19 candles, “not enough” according to one of Paul’s roommates. This was my second inadvertent compliment about my apparent age this weekend, the other coming at the catacombs where I was carded to see if I was under 26 so I could qualify for the youth price. We had some aperitifs there, then meandered over to Chez Justine where we had an incredible dinner filled with wine, laughter, and good food. These are some of the most amazing guys I’ve ever met, and again I was so touched by their efforts to make my birthday away from home special. So, Taro, Paul, and Andrew, thank you guys so much.

Well that wraps up this week in review. I leave Friday for my seven day bus trip through Southern France and Spain, which I cannot stop thinking about. So I don’t know when my next blog will be up, but it will be filled (hopefully) with adventurous stories and glorious pictures.

Much Love,

Brent

2007-02-07T16:03:00.000Z

Life In General

Last Friday I went to a party with Andrew and a lot of English (as in British) teaching assistants. Being with assistants is fun…after I get through the awkward introduction phase that typically goes like this.
Them: “So where are you an assistant at?”
Me: “well, umm, actually…”
Andrew: (in a mocking tone) “tell ‘em Brent”
Me: “like, I’m actually in high school, I’m an exchange student with Rotary”
Them: “so wait, you’re like the kids I teach right?”
After that gets over it’s all good, and talking to British people is a preferred hobby of mine, because their accent makes me laugh, and they are all uber-nice.

After getting up for Handball for the 3rd to last time, I met my friends Guillaume and Marine to do some shopping for “Les Soldes” where the price on everything is basically cut in half, but as it’s been going on since Christmas there isn’t much selection anymore. They had to leave so I met up with some exchange students, Monica and Melanie, and we, well I can’t remember exactly what we did, but I do remember getting Ben and Jerry’s, although I was pretty upset they didn’t have Phish food. That night I went to a party with some kids in my Français class that I have with the Premieres (aka Juniors). We listened to metal, they smoked illegal substances, and we laughed a lot.

I went and saw L’île aux tresors on Wednesday (Treasure Island) which is a French movie based on the book, and I came to realize French movies based on English books aren’t very good.

This weekend was grrrrreat like Frosted Flakes. Andrew and I hung out again. We made some food at his place then went to a party chez Tina (girl from church/AUP).

I’d like to preliminarily thank Rotary, Bokoff Kaplan, and Facebook for Saturday. A couple of weeks ago, a Rotary exchange student who is near Marseilles, who I met on the plane coming to France, sent me a Facebook message saying she was going to be in Paris and that her parents wanted to take me out to lunch. Obviously, I said yes. It was amazing to see her and talk to her, as I’ve said a billion times, exchange students have these weird connections and so get along swimmingly without problem. Her host parents are also some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. This statement is demonstrated by the fact that they first invited me, a random person they’ve never met before to lunch, which they paid for, then paid for me to come to the Louvre with them, then paid for my drink with them at a café after, then told me they would write a letter to my Rotary if I ever wanted to spend a weekend in the Midi. It was an amazing time, thanks Allie!

Afterwards, I met up with Victor, where we proceeded to buy some ridiculously expensive tickets to a movie (as the theatre decided it was way to cool to take our bus passes, that usually give us discounts, because it was Saturday), then ran quickly to get some MacDo, and ran back to get a seat in the theatre. We got back a little later than we wanted too, and the theatre was a little smaller then we expected, so we ended up having to sit in the front row. I’m just glad the movie was in English (it was The Illusionist, which I really liked) or else I would have destroyed my eyesight trying to read the subtitles and seeing what was happening on the screen. It being a beautiful night, we decided to go for a walk along the Seine. I think I’ve said this numerous times, but I’m so thankful to have him as a friend. He is one of the most genuinely kind people I’ve ever met, and our conversations flow so smoothly. We just talked, sat by the Seine drinking beer, and walked. It was amazing.

I told myself Sunday was going to be a kick-it day because I was going to watch the Super Bowl that night, but laying around all day seemed less attractive then at first thought, and since it was the first Sunday of the month (and thus all museums free) I couldn’t justify staying at home. Oh, and it was gorgeous weather outside (completely opposite of today, where it SNOWED!). But I went to the Musée de l’Orangerie, the impressionist museum, which was cool, but I had to wait in like for like 30 minutes…BOO. Afterwards it was still beautiful out so I went and sat in a chair by the fountain in the Tuileries garden (the one by the Louvre), stared at the stars, and had some self-reflexion time.

After my self-reflexion time was Home Group, where we made Taco Salad and had a great discussion about Sin. Justin took me out to coffee afterwards (before the game started) and we had a great talk. Then we returned to the apartment for the big game, where 4 other guys from church came over to watch. Despite not having commercials, being humorously commentated in French, not being able to cheer (not that I cared about the teams anyways) because of a newborn baby sleeping, and the fact that the game ended at 4:30 AM and I had to be to school by 8, it was amazing. There’s something comforting and American about watching football that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside (or maybe that was the beer I had). I somehow managed to get up in the morning and not fall asleep at school through the help of caffeine. To counter my 3 hours of sleep the night before, I went to bed at 8:30 that night. Oh man that felt good.

I am 19 tomorrow.

Brent

oh, and if you want to see pictures from

a. the muddy football game, as I heard the link didn't work...go here

b. random pictures from christmas break till now...go here

2007-01-26T16:33:00.000Z

Mud

After several failed plans of playing American football with guys from Vintage, this last Sunday we got our act together and met up to play in front of Les Invalides in Paris. There were 10 guys: 5 Americans, 2 Frenchmen, a German, an Australian, and a Kiwi, all joined together to play America’s vulgarization of ‘real football.’ As luck, fate, or God, would have it, it began raining basically the second we started explaining the rules. It rained quite hard. The French “football” players on the other grass fields at Les Invalides left when the rain started, but we, as hardcore as we were/are, stayed. What took place constitutes the greatest hour or two of fun I’ve had since I’ve been in Paris. I was either smiling or laughing out-loud the entire time. There’s something about the combined effects of having no traction whatsoever, not really being able to feel your hands, falling every time you start to move, and being completely soaked in water and mud that takes a friendly game of football from fun to ridicu-fun. After a good amount of time playing football, and a short banana break, we turned the tables on the Americans and switched to playing Rugby.

Obviously, playing rugby favored the French guy who played for Harvard, the other French guy who played a pretty high level club rugby, and those from the southern hemisphere (Paul and Garth) who, although never playing on teams, played it at school like we play football or baseball. Rugby is amazingly tiring. It’s also tiring on my brain when I constantly have to tell myself to stay behind the ball as opposed to in front of it. No matter my problems with the strategy or flow of the game, Rugby was just as fun as football, if not more, as it was full contact (we just played flag football, but even that was basically full contact, as there’s no way you can really stop forward movement in the wet mud). Also, by the time we started playing Rugby, we had in effect completely destroyed the field we were playing on. There was no grass to be seen. I’m glad the cops didn’t come by, although we could always claim ignorance and say that we neither saw nor comprehended the sign that said “no ball games on the grass.”

We were the center of every passer-by’s attention. People came up on the grass and took pictures of us. Every person that passed by stared at us thinking “what in the name of Jacques Chirac is going on over here.” My favorite was when the Open Tour bus passed by with tourists all on the seats on top, and they cheered for us.

After we had worn ourselves out completely, I was in the predicament of “what do I do with my mud-caked body/clothes before I go to a birthday party in a few hours.” I was without the option of returning home, as I didn’t see me waltzing into the apartment saying “heyyyyy host mom, you got some laundry to do, and here, while I’m at it, I’m going to track mud all over your floor” so I had to ask Andrew (good friend, English teacher) if I could shower at his house and if he would wash my clothes. Which he did, thanks Andrew!!

I went to the birthday party with no socks, wet shoes, and a wet jacket. I was cold. More so when I had to wait outside a metro station for about 40 minutes before all my friends got there. I could barely move most parts of my body. I was cold. I wanted to go home and sleep. So I did.
And that’s my story. My weeks been pretty good besides that, had a rotary lunch Sunday, grabbed a beer with Andrew Tuesday, saw the movie Bobby Wednesday with Leo (brazilian exchange student), and I highly recommend it. Yesterday I got my Christmas presents (finally) as my friend Nikki brought them from FoCo for me. Yay!

Also, today there was a revolution in my life. I realized my Professeur Principale (head teacher) doesn’t hate me. In our lab she was talking to people about what they were doing next year, about which Prepas they want to do (Math, Math/Physics, etc, the French higher education is really complicated), and I told her I was going to just take Chemistry, because it’s my favorite. She said she’s noticed that (obviously sarcastic) so I got to talk to her again about how I don’t understand because I’ve never really taken it etc, and she was like “ya since you don’t have the same base it’s probably like reading Chinese for you.” My head response was “Wait what, you are being understanding, where did that come from??!! Then I started talking to her about what I really was going to do next year, and kind of explained the American education system to her. She said, to my complete surprise, that she was going to give me her email so that I could fill her in from time to time on how I was doing. Wow. That’s all I can say. Things are looking up people. She doesn’t hate me.

The end.

Brent

if you want to look at the pictures of football and don't have facebook, go here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000375&l=4f9e0&id=1076310089

2007-01-20T12:36:00.000Z

The Blog, Long Overdue

I think it’s been a good two weeks since I’ve blogged. I have had a somewhat filled up two weeks, hence the lack of a blog, so here she goes.

School started last week (Jan 8th), which I could do without, but hey, c’est la vie. Last week on Wednesday I practiced with Justin and Christian (guys from the church) because I was playing the Djembe at Sanctuary on Friday. It was fun to get my groove on again, even though I realized I’m not that talented of a drummer, but as I told my friend Andrew from church, “I got rhythm.” So we practiced Wed, and played Friday night at Sanctuary which went really well. Although I spent probably over an hour and a half Friday afternoon on public transport, it was a great day. After Sanctuary some of us went and grabbed a beer at “L’academie de la bière” which is extremely overpriced but has a wide selection, and I successfully convinced my waiter to change my glass as it had an awful smell described by Taro as “dirty sponge.” As in French restaurants the customer, in fact, is not always right, as he is in America, I was proud of this achievement.

On Saturday, me, Leo (Brazilian exchange student) and Rike (German exchange student) hung out in Paris for a while, walked around, got coffee, etc, and had a good time. Then Leo and I went and saw Apocalypto. He had free tickets at his apartment so we ran/took the metro there, and then I rode precariously on the back of his bike back to the theatre. My legs cramped because I had to keep them somewhat lifted, and they also came very close to parked cars on the side of the road. I honestly thought I was going to die, and got very paranoid on the back of the bike. I think this summer’s accident has had lasting effects on my confidence on two wheeled vehicles. BUT, we made it fine, and watched the movie, which I found extremely well made, and extremely violent, but I enjoyed it.

Sunday I hung out with some exchange students who were in Paris before heading over to Justin’s house for an amazing table group, where Taro taught us how to make sushi. He bought all the ingredients, and we prepared it all (with his help) and finished with a ri-diculous amount of sushi that only ended up costing 4 euros each, as we just split the ingredients. Unheard of. Unheard of. Loved it. My favorite table groups are the ones where we prepare food together, because it’s just so fun to be in the kitchen talking about whatever and making food together. I just generally like fellowship. I was also able to watch American football, the Seahawks versus the Bears, which was really weird with French announcers, but I enjoyed trying to explain the rules to a kiwi and Taro and realizing that it’s a lot more complicated than I thought. Overall, amazing day.

Monday I headed over to Paul’s house for what else but curry, which was a really fun time. One of his neighbors came over who didn’t really speak French, so our conversations were half in English and half in French, and it felt really cool to be able to flow in between the two easily. We had 4 different nationalities represented between the five of us there. A French, A Kiwi, A German, and two Americans. I’ve realized why Paul (my friend) and Jesus (also my friend) are such advocates of meal sharing. Especially with people of different nationalities, it’s so interesting to be around so many different people with such different backgrounds, because everyone brings something completely different to the table. A different history, different culture, and a different outlook on the world. It’s a conversation that’s totally unique because of how unalike, but yet alike the people are. Also, sharing a meal, or just the invitation, brings such a feeling of warmth and acceptance that I think everyone needs from time to time. So if you have the opportunity (aka you don’t live with host parents), invite some friends (or random strangers, or enemies) over for dinner, I promise you’ll love it.

I got the chance to see my first French play this week, King Lear by Shakespeare. Although it was in French, it seems weird to me that my first experience at a French theatre was a Shakespeare play, but whatever. It was really well made, with great actors and a great set, but the experience was somewhat downplayed for me for several reasons. Listening to French for 2 hours and 40 minutes without an intermission can get somewhat tiring, especially when I’m confused on what is happening and who the crap that person is, or that person, or that person over there. It didn’t help that the girl sitting next to me had basically the same comprehension of the characters/plot as I did, so I didn’t get any much needed help there. But overall, I had a pretty good time, not sure if I’d do it again for 26 euros, but I guess it’s one of those things that you just kind of have to say that you did while spending a year in Paris.

Almost done kids, yesterday after school I went to the well-known English bookstore in Paris, Shakespeare and Co., that I had yet to visit, and spent a pretty substantial amount of time there book looking. The store is amazing, in an ancient house with books lining the old, time worn shelves, and even a section for Russian literature (YES!, although it was somewhat lacking in the Russian Literature in English dept, if I could read Russian I would have been supremely happy) although it felt weird to speak with the checkout lady in English. Afterwards, I went over to Andrew’s house (guy from church, teaches English here, went to Vanderbilt) who is one of my favorite people and ate with him (shared meals!) and one of his friends from school who is also teaching English in Paris. We had a great long conversation, watched some ridiculous videos from their college days, went and grabbed a beer, and continued talking. I love the seeming organic nature of conversation, how it seems to have a life of it’s own, changing directions and themes on the slightest whim. And, that’s the end of my day by day update of my life over the past two weeks. I promise I’ll be better about updating (if only so you don’t have to spend time reading this ridiculously long blog, while reading the word ridiculous probably 100 times, because it’s the only adjective I’m comfortable using).

Some observations:
-I can’t stop listening to Mat Kearney, if you haven’t heard him, hear him.
-I come home in less than 5 months, June 18th, baby.
-There’s still a lot I need to do in the next 5 months.
-Compliments on progress in French make me ecstatic (ex., girl in my bio class, after I was done talking with my professor about the geology of the western United States, aka bragging about how I backpack in canyons there, saying “Brent, it’s amazing how much progress you’ve made in French, I can’t even remember how spoke when you first got here”)
-I love reading.
-It’s getting progressively easier to wake up every morning without an expletive being my first thought.
-This blog is way too long. Next time, “Brent’s deep philosophical observations and thoughts that will make you believe he is the modern day equivalent of Plato”
-I miss my Fanny Pack.
-I miss my family.
-I miss my friends.
-I miss a lot of things.
-Most of which has something to do with food (Chipotle, Positano’s, Wendy’s runs etc)
-This year went by ridiculously fast.
-This year has been amazing.
-Time never stops.
-And the biggest struggle in life is deciding how we deal with the above observation.

Thanks for tuning in,

MILES Brent, Terminale S 1

2007-01-08T18:27:00.000Z

“You’re taking a vow of silence because of Friedrich Nietzche?”

So ya…school started again today. Hip hip hooray. That, mind you was said with sarcasm. Although, it wasn’t that awful, as I got out an hour early because the History class I joined before break was taking a test, so I didn’t have to go. Chaching. I’m basically just trying to relax and have fun with the time I have left. Not to say I’m going to start doing nothing in school, but I’m no longer going to spend time needlessly worrying about school. After all, school is not exactly the reason I’m here, so it shouldn’t exactly be the thing I spend my time creating ulcers in my stomach about. But enough about school…

The end of my vacation was great, well not ending my vacation, but the latter part…I think you get the picture. Let’s see, saw The Holiday with another exchange student Wednesday which was good but needed more Jack Black. Thursday…I got my haircut. I finally got around to going on the Bateux Mouches (the boat tours on the Seine) Friday when the people who I hung out last week came up from Bourges in central France. The boat tour was pretty good and informative, but semi-ridiculously cold sitting on top of the boat. The day was somewhat random, as we had to go meet an exchange student (Jim) who didn’t ride up with the other kids at a train station where he had been walking around for a couple hours as he forgot his cell phone charger and had to buy a new one so he could call us. Good work Jim. We then proceeded to eat, according to each individual’s taste requirement, Panini, Croque Monsieur, or a cold Hotdog, but the cold hotdog didn’t exactly get finished. Then we went on a somewhat random walk around Paris, as I didn’t have a map, but nonetheless it was a success. Then, me, Jim, and his friend Jon who had just come in from the States went and got some French onion soup on Montmartre at Jim’s bequest, well actually I just mooched some, but that’s besides the point. Anyways, Friday=Good.

Saturday=Also good. I went to this exposition on the history of Paris, then met up with an awesome guy named Taro from my church to see Little Miss Sunshine, which although it was the second time for me, was equally amazing as the first viewing. Then we got some Falafel in the Jewish Quarter, and to preempt questions by those who were with me last time in the Jewish Quarter, no, I didn’t get asked if I was Jewish this time. Maybe because it was the Sabbath and I was in a restaurant and not at temple. Who knows?

Yesterday I went to the Cluny Museum (The Museum for the Middle Ages) because it was the first Sunday of the month, and the museums are free. It is pretty massive, with an inordinate amount of stuff to look at, so much so that I somewhat got bored and tired by the end, but had to go anyways to get to home group, which was amazing, as usual. It’s actually called table group so I’m just going to call it that. But, table group was great, it kind of just turned into me and the two other guys that were there (Justin and Bjorn) just having a discussion about a lot of stuff while Jen (Justin’s wife) took care of the baby. I drank a lot of Orangina. Maybe too much. But, there is never too much Orangina.

Wow I wrote a lot more then I wanted to. Thanks for reading this far. You are a trooper.

I have 6 weeks of school till my first Bus Trip in France/Spain, which I’m uber excited about. Let’s just hope this 6 weeks is a wee bit less eventful then the last 7 I had at school.

Bisous,

Brent

2007-01-02T20:57:00.000Z

How I Been Rollin’

Quick recap of my after-Christmas Christmas vacation so far.

Don’t worry, I’ve been putting off writing this, so it won’t be tooo long and in depth.

Last week was great. Wednesday I at dinner over at Paul’s house with his brother, two other Kiwi’s that were in town, and Garth the Australian. The dinner and company were great, but when cricket became the topic of discussion I felt probably more confused then I have since coming.

Thursday I hung out with Paul’s brother Jon-O, which was awesome. Got some lunch, went to the Picasso Museum, which I had been to before but was much better the second time, and talked over a beer.

Friday I ate dinner at Paul’s again, then went to a bar with him, Jon-O and some of his roommates, then went to a club with his roommates and Jon-O. Clubs are overrated. That’s all I have to say.

Saturday crashed at Paul’s house. Saw Babel, which was okay, don’t really know if I liked it or not.

Sunday aka New Year’s Eve, hung out with exchange students from Beauvais who were in town, Brittney and Chelsea, who are some of my favorite exchange student friends. We walked for-ever, but it was amazing nonetheless. Then that night I went over to Garth’s friend’s apartment and had New Year ’s Eve, which was fun. Went out and saw the Eiffel Tower at midnight, and was disappointed that there were no fireworks. Got home really late. So therefore slept until 4 in the afternoon Sunday. It’s 2007. Crazy talk that is.

Did nothing Sunday. Watched two movies. Laid around. Etc. Etc.

Today was grrrrrrreat. Wendi (who went to FCHS and is doing her exchange in the West of France) was here, so we walked around for a while (that seems to be a trend for me, as I believe this week has been the most walking I’ve done in a week outside of backpacking), which was awesome and it was great to see her and talk to her again. Then met up with some other exchange students who were in town, Zach and Jim, who I had met on the plane coming here, who were here with some friends from home. We ascended the Arc de Triomphe, walked, ate, caféd, and basically had an amazing time. They are coming back Friday, so I’m looking forward to another fun day à Paris.

“This life is all we are, so prepare your lonely hearts, you know it’s all you have, so breathe in”
-Number One Gun

Brent

2006-12-26T22:02:00.000Z

Christmas Away from Home

It is finished. The event that every exchange student kind of hmm’s about before his exchange, saying “hmm, I wonder what Christmas is going to be like away from my family, in a new country, with strangers?” Mine, in fact, turned out to be great.

Great may not be the correct word to use though, but this whole experience has been so semi surreal, aka it hasn’t felt exactly like Christmas, and since nothing bad happened, I ate to my hearts content and didn’t start balling when I talked to my parents, I will say it was great. I say it didn’t feel like Christmas because it really didn’t. Probably because what I view as Christmas, the tradition and celebration that my family and I celebrate and remember each year, is really the only Christmas I know. Sure I know that around December each year lots of people put up Christmas lights and buy lots of presents, which didn’t change when I came here. But the real festivities that let me know it’s Christmas, with my family and my mom’s food and my friends, didn’t come with me this year. The reason for Christmas, Christ’s birth, was still celebrated, but it didn’t feel like it was supposed to, as it didn’t feel like what I was used to. Welp, here’s to growing up.

Now, after my meager attempt at philosophical wanderings, onto the concrete, what I actually did for Christmas, or more specifically, the weekend surrounding Christmas.

Saturday night I went over to Paul’s house (this is the final time I’m explaining who he is, the Kiwi, from the church, who went on a rotary exchange 9 years ago) because his brother just came in, who is my age. We drank some good Trappist beer and talked for a while, and then in true French fashion, Paul, his brother John-O, Garth (Australian) and Danielle (Paul’s girlfriend) left to eat at around 9:30. We went to a pretty typical French restaurant where I had duck, mmm I love duck. We had a great time talking over the funny live French acoustic musician and inhaling loads of smoke. That in fact isn’t sarcastic, we did have a great time. I will probably be hanging out with Paul’s brother more over break, as he is my age and Paul will be working. He is really cool so it should work out pretty nicely.

Christmas eve I met up with Victor and his brother and sister while they were finishing up some last minute shopping. They are really nice, and we went to a café for a long time talking over vin chaud (also known as gluhwine or mulledwine) and spiced beer for Christmas. I made it home just in time to throw on my suit and speedily walk to the Church where we were attending mass. I walk by it all the time when I go to the closest metro, and I had never peeked inside, but the inside is beautifully designed with whitewashed walls and tall arches, so it was a good place to have Christmas eve mass. It was the “kids service” so the kids sang a lot of songs. I tried really hard to pay attention but it’s hard when there’s a large mass of stone blocking your view of the priest and there are tons of people around. I enjoyed it, but I prefer a little calmer service like at Discovery. I then proceeded to the apartment where I ate one of the biggest meals of my life. First though we drank champagne (Cristal to be exact, aka 150 Euro bottle) and opened presents. Crazy Europeans decided they would do that on Christmas eve, but I think it makes it lose some of the charm, not really having to wait and kind of just opening them all at once and eating. But the food was amazing. We had coquilles saint-jacques (seafood in shells, I don’t really know how to explain it), followed by chapon (basically a big, good, chicken) with stuffing, potatoes with I think walnuts or something of the sort, then a enormous amount of cheese of all types, topped off by an excessively rich raspberry cake that I had helped my host mom make earlier in the day. Coupled with all the wine I drank, saying I slept well would be an understatement.

For Christmas lunch we went over to my host grandparent’s apartment (who I forgot to mention ate with us on Christmas eve) to have probably the most filling meal of my life. My host mom is from the Alsace-Lorraine region of France (so basically Germany), and therefore she made the traditional alsacian dish of sauerkraut topped with sausages, salami, and smoked meat. All of this is put on a gigantic platter then brought out and put on a heating pad, so it stays nice and warm for seconds and thirds. Definitely one of my favorite dishes, ever. Along with the meal we drank amazing wine, starting with wine from Alsace (which is sweeter white wine) then moving along to a 1988 bottle from Bordeaux and a 1975 bottle from Bourgogne (the wine, as my host grandpa explained to me, was Napoleon’s favorite, and he never went anywhere without a bottle). Against all odds, the meal only got better, because the cheese we ate was Muenster (my hands down, favorite cheese, and no not “muenster” like you get at Safeway, but real honest to goodness Muenster) and the dessert was bûche de noël (a ice cream type log cake) and little éclairs, all washed down with lovely expresso. I honestly didn’t consider moving after we ate. Alas my resolve was not strong enough, as later in the evening I went to see James Bond with my host family. Afterwards we went to this fancy pants restaurant type place and grabbed a drink, where I had Bailey’s, yummy. And that was the end of Christmas.

Today I got up around 8 to get ready to go to Disneyland Paris/go look for my package. Turns out my package never found it’s way to the post office like the nice lady on the telephone said it would, so I still do not have my Christmas presents from my parents L. Although my day made up for the disappointment in the morning, as Disneyland Paris was extremely fun but extremely cold. It was for the birthday of my friend Guillaume’s girlfriend Marine (who is also my friend), another couple I didn’t really know, and Victor. As Victor woke up late then forgot his wallet, I was left as the 5th wheel for the first while which was not that fun. When Victor came things started looking up, and the day turned out to be a success, with lots of rides ridden and lots of laughs had. I’m really glad I went, as the smile on my face in the pictures attest to.

Merry Christmas to you all!!

Brent

I read an amazing editorial about Christmas last night in the Wall Street Journal, which you can find here http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=65000827 , read it. That’s a command.

2006-12-23T18:09:00.000Z

4 Months Woot Woot

Well I made it 4 months, despite the best efforts of my school, and couldn’t be happier. I’m just so content right now to be here, especially since Christmas vacation started today.

This last week was great. On Wednesday I went out to coffee with Nikki (who did an exchange to France a few years ago and just graduated from the American University in Paris) which was just as fun as the last time we had coffee. Some more criticizing the French took place, more recollections from high school (as she went to FCHS), and just an all around great discussion. Thanks Nikki!

There was a concert at my school Thursday, and Victor was singing a Jack Johnson song accompanied by another friend Julian on the guitar, so at lunch we went to Julian’s apartment to eat and for them to practice. I found my new favorite thing to buy at a French supermarket, which I will use often if I ever live in Paris without a nice host mom to cook me dinner, which are 2 croque monsieurs (grilled ham and cheese sandwiches) that are ready to fry on a poêle (pan), for less than 2 euros! They were surprisingly good and filling, although the ham inside was a bit cold, but that says more about my lack of cooking abilities than anything else. Regardless, they were amazing. That night they played at the concert, which was really fun, as there were all types of music that were played, from their acoustic guitar stuff to jazz piano to “afrostralian” music with a djembe and dijoridoos (sp?). Afterwards about 5 of us went to a café, which was fun, although my coat then reeked of smoke, as French café filled with people=smoke chamber. But after we had a semi-Christmas dinner with my host mom’s aunt and uncle where we ate things that I don’t know the name of but were good. Being French, the dinner lasted for 2 hours, so I was a little bloated/tired by the end.

Last night as well was superb. Victor and I just chilled at one of his friend’s house Eva, who went to school with him before he switched schools. I ate way too much spaghetti as her brother served me a ridiculous amount because the noodles were all stuck together, but it was fun to just hang out at someone’s house without feeling awkward, and I learned lots of fun French slang, not all of which is appropriate.

Overall, I’m doing great, although through the coordinated efforts of the French postal service and myself, the package my parents sent bearing my 3 normal Christmas gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh, was not delivered/picked up, so I will be receiving my presents hopefully Tuesday as a Boxing Day present.

Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve and it doesn’t feel like it at all. Maybe because we don’t have a tree up or anything representing Christmas at all, or maybe it’s because there’s no snow, or maybe just because my Grandma’s not at my house constantly baking mouthwatering goodness (well she is doing that, just not at my current residence).

But spend time with your families, eat to your hearts content, drink lots of sparkling apple cider, and be thankful for what God has given you, and what he gave us in the form of His Son. Enjoy this time; love and appreciate those around you, as you’ll never know how much they mean until they (or you) are gone.

Joyeux Noël,

Brent

2006-12-19T21:53:00.000Z

Hey errrrbody.

If you want to see some pictures from 2 weekends ago/some artsy pictures i've taken/jacked with go here

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000259&l=40446&id=1076310089

and here

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000293&l=39c10&id=1076310089

enjoy!

2006-12-18T21:03:00.000Z

Best Week Ever

Okay, maybe that’s an overstatement, but I did have a pretty great week.

I got put in some new classes with the Premieres (Junior year) which I like a lot. I have two more hours of history/geography on Mondays with the teacher I really like, but last Monday we only ended up having one hour. This was because my teacher went to a union meeting about a strike that took place today during the second hour of class, which was ironic because we spent the first hour debating the pros/cons of striking. Oooh the French…

The weekdays went by without much drama or incident, which was relieving. Friday was a great end to the week, as me, Victor and Gabriel went to a pub, had a pint, and saw Casino Royale. In the last couple weeks I’ve really been feeling my spoken French improve a lot, as it becomes easier to speak with ease without concentrating on each word I want to say. I then went to a party for an hour or so at this guy’s apartment from my church, wasn’t too exciting and I was tired so I left.

A sound I’ve learned to detest woke me up Saturday morning to remind me that I had to play handball for two hours. My abs and legs still hurt. That night there was a White Elephant gift exchange with the church (well not exactly white elephant, as the gifts were between 10-15 Euros). As I’m accustomed to White Elephant=Useless gifts, I made the solid purchase of a Czech-French dictionary as my present, and started to feel bad for whoever was going to get my present as presents were unwrapped such as coffee cups, automatic wine openers, etc. But all turned out well in the end, as I was not stabbed or wounded for bringing said gift, and I came home with Martini, so I think I came out ahead in the end.

I finally stopped putting off visiting the Eiffel tower on Sunday. I took a nice walk and some fun artsy pictures. Also, there was this big market right below the tower that was selling produce from regions all over France, so I took advantage (profiter as the French say) of many free samples of wine, beer, and cheese. I parted with 2 bottles of wine headed for an extremely enjoyable home group, where we all pitched in and cooked scrumptious Jamie Oliver Risotto (I was on chopping mozzarella/celery duty, along with figuring out how to properly cut chicken and feeling like an inadequate human being) and had a predictably amazing conversation.

Today many (but unfortunately not all) French teachers were on strike, so I only had school from 10-12. After my 2 hours of math that felt more like 3, some friends and I ate and then went to a movie.

Life is good. Christmas vacation starts Saturday. Therefore 2 weeks of goodness (although I’m not going with Rick on the “supervacation” because his Rotary won’t let him). My math teacher was talking today about how we’re basically halfway through the school year, which makes me happy and sad because A) school gets annoying but B) I am just starting to really enjoy myself here. But nevertheless, 2 weeks of vacation, then a month and a half of school, then my first bus trip in France/Spain for a week. Lovely. Lovely. Lovely. I’m so glad I did this and so glad I didn’t get sent home. I’ve already experienced so much that many people never get to do, and still have many more adventures to come.

I love you all. Thanks so much for your support and prayers.

Bisous,

Brent

2006-12-10T22:01:00.000Z

I <3 Paris

No matter how crazy/frustrating/tiring/annoying/long my weeks can be; the weekend seems to always save me. This one did just that.

Not that my week was necessarily awful, but the weekend was especially good so I will quickly recap for those of you who care.

My host mom took me to Montmartre Friday afternoon (=missing my math class) to grab lunch and then go to mass at Sacré Coeur. I had an extremely good quiche with goat cheese, after which we headed up the steps to the Basilica to go to Mass. It was the celebration of the Immaculate Conception, which I learned is more about Mary being born sinless than Jesus being conceived with the Holy Spirit, which I never really knew. I actually realized I could learn a lot of French by going to Mass, but that may be a sacrilegious reason for going. In any case, it was a great experience, but I still prefer churches where contact with other humans is important.

That night I went to an Australian guy from the church’s apartment to jam, as he’s a musician and has a cool little set-up in his apartment with guitar and drums. Then I went to the church’s actual service (which is once a month, as opposed to the home groups every week), which was fun and Christmas-y. After we went to an American style restaurant called Indiana where I will be taking my dad when he comes to visit because, although not up to Texas Roadhouse standards, it’s actually pretty good.

Saturday morning I started Handball for P.E., which everyone else in my class has been playing for the last 2 years at least and in which my only experience consists of a couple games in Mr. Wood’s P.E. class, so what I’m saying is I’m not exactly stellar and running hurts my feet.

My feet continued to be pained throughout the day as some of the other exchange students and I got together in Paris and walked basically forever. They are so fun, I love hanging out with them. We got some Starbucks (as is necessitated by the fact that it’s the Christmas season and the Holiday cups are out) and basically walked around. Walking around Paris becomes a lot less humdrum when there are likable people to talk to. That was really fun, and we’re going to try to do more stuff together and see each other more, as for the first 3 months after our welcome weekend we did absolutely nothing together.

Garth (Australian guy) was having a dinner get together esque thing at his house Saturday night, where I consumed amazing soup and cocktails, and met some really nice people. I was super tired coming home and fell asleep on the Métro, missing my stop, but luckily only by one, so I could walk easily back to my house.

This morning I went over to Leo (Brazilian exchange student)’s host family’s apartment to have lunch that he made. His host parents and host brothers are really nice. I got annihilated in a chess game against his little host brother and had my second cocktail in 24 hours made by a Brazilian. A friend of their family who hangs out with Leo every once in a while invited us to go to a Rugby match so we went and it was really fun. It was a pretty big game, with one of the best French clubs versus the best English club. The French team’s colors are pink and blue which I find somewhat humorous, but as no one could really tell a rugby player that he is effeminate for wearing pink, I guess it works out. Rugby is a really exciting sport to watch and the atmosphere in the stadium is awesome. I really enjoyed it.

Then, like all Sunday nights, I went to the home group. Jen and Justin (people whose house we have it at) recently had a baby so a lot of the time was spent ooing and awwwwing over the little creature. Again, like normal, loved the fellowship with friends.

I’m tired and done writing.

I promise next time I’ll try to spice it up a bit. This was probably extremely boring to read.

2 weeks till Christmas. Score.

Cheers,

Brent

2006-12-04T19:44:00.000Z

A Weekend Full of Splendor and Grace

Quick recap.

Fri. Champs-Elysées with Tina from American University in Paris. We went to a café with random people she didn’t even know, drank some wine, had good inter-exchange student conversation. Then came more exchange student fun. Brittney (who I hung out on the plane ride with) and Chelsea (who lives in Brittney’s city) were in Paris, so we walked along the Champs-Elysées, talked, saw the Eiffel Tower, and talked some more. I love nothing more than talking to other exchange students, and I had plenty of that this weekend.

Sat. Went to the District Conference for Rotary and saw all the other exchange students I met the first weekend I was here (and hadn’t seen since) which was awesome. Again, talking to exchange students=amazing. We just kind of hung out all day and had to make a little presentation about our view of life in France etc. to the Rotary people. Then after me, Leo (the Brazilian in Paris) and two other girls (Monica and Rebecca, in case anyone is wondering) went to the Champs-Elysées (aka my third time since last Friday), spent lots of time waiting in line at a supermarket for them to buy hair products, then stood in line some more to get some mediocre food at the French impersonation of McDonald’s “Quick” and had a great conversation. After they left I went to a party with some kids from my school at this apartment with a beautiful view of Paris on Montmartre. There was some dancing to be had, and it was pretty fun minus the fact that Victor couldn’t come so I felt semi-awkward. I was really tired so I took off at 11:30. When almost home, 2 girls ran up right behind me and started talking to me, and then asked me if I wanted break French cultural stereotypes (or something to that effect) and come to a party with kids from their school. Knowing that this was extremely random and would probably not happen again, and in light of the fact that I only live once, I decided to go. They told me to tell everyone I was one of the girl’s “correspondent” which worked for a while until I was talking to someone and they asked me where I went to school, and I said Claire (my “correspondent”)’s school, to which she responded “so my school?” Probably half the people at the party thought I was her correspondent, and half knew that they just randomly met me on the street. Everyone was really nice (and uber rich) and I got some of their phone numbers so maybe I’ll actually see them again. But, it was probably the most random thing to have happened to me thus far, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Sun. Brittney and Chelsea were still in town, so I went and met them at the big department stores Printemps and Galeries Lafayette. Chelsea was shopping with another girl, and Brittney’s not really the shopping type so her and I had an amazing time talking and creating a little fun for ourselves in Galeries Lafayette by taking random pictures with mannequins, trying to price obscenely overpriced objects, stealing Christmas stickers from behind the unmanned gift wrap counter, and overall just having a grand ol’ time. So Brittney, if you’re reading this, which you probably will, thanks, I had an amazing time. After they left I went over to Paul (the Kiwi)’s house where we were having home group, as the couple whose house we usually have it at was in the middle of having a baby. After our discussion we went and had sushi, which I guess is the first time I’ve had real sushi apart from eating random California rolls as appetizers at graduation parties. Needless to say, I need to start eating sushi more often.

So basically my weekend was amazing, which made it all the harder to get up for school this morning. But alas, that’s life, and as Tina was telling me, school is going to suck either way so I just need to deal with it, and that school isn’t going to be the thing I look back and remember when this year is over, it’s going to be the weekend’s like this one that I’ll keep forever.

Brent

2006-12-01T16:14:00.000Z

I Stay in Frankreich

So just a quick little update on my situation.

First of all thank you so much for anyone who prayed for me, thought about me, offered me encouragement, or helped me bash on the French during this past week and a half. I am so thankful to have people that care about me. I hope you all know how much you mean to me. Now, on to business.

So all went well at the little “conseil de classe” thing with all the teachers. Actually a lot of my teachers actually defended me (including my Philo teacher who was like “why are we grading him, he’s here to learn French”) and one of the class delegates who was in the meeting told me that the professors really didn’t have a problem with me and that the bad talk stuff going on probably just stemmed from rumors and misunderstandings. I guess they actually never even brought up throwing me out during the meeting so that’s good. I figure that means I have at least another trimester guaranteed in France! So I’m just going to keep working at school like I have been and hope that my teachers continue to see that even though my grades in Chemistry probably won’t improve substantially. So all goes well here in the land of Frenchys, except for the fact that I just failed my math test that I actually studied for, so that may not be the best start to the 2nd trimester, but alas, c’est la vie.

3 weeks until Christmas break. Yessssssss. And then the day after Christmas (granted I don’t have a major falling out with my host parents or rotary before then) I will be going on the greatest vacation of my life for two weeks with Rick and his dad. So something exciting to look forward to for little old me.

I love you all. Thanks again for your support!

Brent

2006-11-28T18:12:00.000Z

Super Days and Sick Days

Where to begin? Sorry I’ve been pretty unmotivated to write this, but here she goes.

I went and helped at this Food Bank type fundraiser thing on Saturday where we handed out grocery bags and asked people to fill them up with some food for homeless people. It was supposed to be with Rotary but I ended up doing it with a bunch of people from the Lions Club who were really nice so “tant mieux.” I think probably my most fluently spoken French phrase may be “vous souhaitez donner à la Banque Alimentaire?” as I said that probably over 500 times. I also got to see the not so nice side of some Parisians (well, I see that side a lot, but I guess this time it was just more face to face) as I tried to get them to spend maybe 2 or 3 Euros to help out hungry people. I could always tell the business-cash guys in their suits or the ladies with their fur coats were not going to take a bag, because you know, time is money, and who has time for poor people? There was also the one lady who was telling us how sick she is of seeing homeless people on the street. Somewhat ironically, the people that my mind told me were less fortunate by society’s standards were the ones most willing to give, like a lady with a cane who could barely grab the plastic bag we tried to give her because her hand was deformed. I guess it’s nothing to be surprised at, as Jesus didn’t have the greatest opinion of the arrogant rich either. “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

That night there was a big-ol Thanksgiving dinner with Vintage (the church I’ve been getting involved with), so in fact I didn’t miss Thanksgiving this year after all! My night was filled with scrumptious food, fun conversation, and tasty (but strong) wine. As my family doesn’t drink, I’ve never experienced Thanksgiving with wine. Everyone knows how tired turkey makes you, so add a good amount of wine in there and you can imagine how tired I was. I met a girl who goes to the American University in Paris who was an exchange student to France a few years ago, so she was amazing to talk to. There’s kind of just this subtle connection between Rotary exchange students that makes conversation so easy, because you’ve both experienced the same things and can understand each other’s stories. I met a bunch of other people from a bunch of different places, so I’m very pleased to have found (with my mother’s help of course) this little pocket of sanity in this city some like to call Paris.

“Lazy Sunday, wake up in the late afternoon” This phrase has come to describe my Sundays, wake up, eat a good lunch with the host family, kick it, then go to the home group at 6. The home group was relaxing, and that’s exactly what I needed. We prayed for a long time and as I had just been worrying so much about my school and everything I brought my heart rate down a pretty good amount and calmed me down. We also made frozen pizzas and I burnt my mouth, which I guess was the only downer of the night.

The thing I have found that I love about Paris, even though I complain sometimes, is how close it is to everything. As in yesterday, after school, I was still really worried, so I went to Montmartre, got myself some Crêpe, and sat on a bench below Sacré Coeur overlooking Paris. Then I went inside and just had some alone time between me and the big man. If any of you need to clear your mind, go to Sacré Coeur and pray inside. Although that may be varying in cost depending on how far away you live from Paris, I assure you it’s worth it.

I had been kind of getting sick all throughout the weekend, so yesterday was kind of bad just with coughing/running nose etc. For those of you who know me I don’t exactly get sick often, so I’m blaming it on the stress. But, I did get to stay home from school today at the suggestion of my host parents, so that in itself is worth being sick as I most likely would have spent a lot of today at school worrying. I watched Crash, which I really liked, read, fell asleep, had a crazy dream, and have just been kind of hanging out all day. This is up there in the relaxation factor with Sacré Coeur.

Whatever happens on Friday happens Friday and I’m just going to deal with things as they come. This week has been a nice lesson in trust. Trust is one of those funny things that seems so easy to do in theory but is so very hard in practice. Logically, me tearing up my insides worrying about what’s going to happen makes no sense, as by doing that I accomplish nothing. But we all like to be in control (me especially), so it’s hard for us to accept that things are out of our hands, even if the hands in which they are in are much more qualified to handle our situation. Basically it comes down to accepting that God has our best interests in mind, even though it may not seem like it at the time or it’s not exactly what we had in mind, which is one of the hardest things there is to accept. I’ve been repeating a quote over and over in my head, which I am going to leave with you.

Calm thyself, O my soul, so that the divine can act in thee!
Calm thyself, O my soul, so that God is able to repose in thee so that His peace may cover thee!
Søren Kierkegaard

Brent

2006-11-24T22:20:00.000Z

Uh…I Pretty Much Have No Idea What To Even Say To Begin To Explain This Week

I guess I’ll give the semi-quick overview. So Monday was good, I didn’t go to Math because I talked to my guidance counselor type guy and thought that he found a French class for me in place of math, so I asked him if I needed to go and he said no. So then Tuesday I get called into the real princpal’s office (basically the Dean of the school that half the students have neither seen nor talked to) and he tells me he doesn’t like how things are going. So he was mad because I didn’t go to math (which turns out was just a big misunderstanding) and about other stuff like how I’m “arrogant” in class etc. Basically just the most ridiculous crap (yes mom, I said it, that’s the only way to explain it) ever, since after my host mom talked to me a month and a half ago I’ve taken notes in all my classes, I never talk during class, and I try to do my homework. So they said they were going to review me with the teachers at this “conseil de classe” majing thingy which is next Friday and decide whether or not I can come back in January. So basically all this week I spent worrying about that, at some points wanting very much to just get sent home to make it all go away (these times were usually in the morning), or really wanting to stay (usually later in the day, like tonight, which I will get to later). So basically I believe I know what it feels like to have a period, but I’m going to go ahead and say my mood swings have been much worse than any period could bring. But I’m not sure, I’ve never experienced that. Anyways…so ya, if you guys could pray that God will just work everything out with this, because I really do want to stay and finish what I started, it’s just things need to be worked out at my school so that there’s an understanding between me and the teachers of what they expect of me etc. This week has definitely been a lesson in patience (while trying to explain myself without yelling to people who didn’t really care what I had to say) and trust (trusting that God’s going to work through whatever happens and me worrying about it is pointless). But anyways that’s the overview. I'm not really as worried as I was earlier this week, as one of my best friends is the class delegate so he's going to stick up for me, my rotary counselor is writing a letter, and this kid at lunch told me he'd go on a hunger strike if i got removed from school. Basically the hunger strike thing relieved my worries.

I actually had a good week apart from all that. On Wednesday I went out to coffee with a girl who goes to the American University in Paris and who was on a Rotary exchange a few years ago. We had a great talk. It’s always good to talk to a former exchange student because they know exactly what you’re going through and are a big help. So if you’re reading this Nikki, thanks. But she went to Kruse, Boltz, and Fort Collins High so it was fun to talk about old teachers and how much better American high school is than French high school. After that I met some Rotary girls who live North of Paris, and we walked around for a while (they were buying food for Thanksgiving) and it was fun to talk to them and see how similarly/differently our exchanges are going.

Yesterday, as you all know, was Thanksgiving. I guess I thought it would be a lot harder and that I would be a lot more homesick, but as no one celebrates it here and everything is decorated for Christmas, it didn’t really feel like I was missing anything until I told Victor about how I should be at my brother’s house, eating monkey bread, playing video games, and being with family. So all you people out there with your families, don’t take it for granted. Like Tyler said in his blog, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, and I never realized how much my family meant to me until I came here.

This is getting long so I’ll cap her off with today’s events. After school was amazing. Victor, Guillaume, this girl Hélène and I went walking on the Champs Elysées, went and looked around Louis Vuitton and played with toy cars in the Disney Store. Then Victor and I went to visit one of his best friends from his former school, Eva, at her apartment. She was extremely nice and easy to talk to, so it was good to meet her because I’ll probably see her again as her and Victor are really good friends. If there’s one thing I am thankful for here (although there is not just one, but you know what I mean) it would be Victor. He is seriously one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He is easy to talk to and puts up with my somewhat constant asking of how to say things in French. After Eva’s house we went and got Starbucks (oh man, the Christmas cups are out, and I got a Latte Praliné…uh-mazing) because I had been telling myself I was going to get a Holiday drink sometime as a treat, and I figured since I had an eventful week this was the time. So we got Starbucks (which reminded me of getting coffee with all my friends, and made me somewhat sad), and talked for probably 2 hours. I don’t know what it is, but there’s just people that are awkward to talk to and people that aren’t. Victor is in the “aren’t” section. We had a great discussion, then while getting on the Métro to go home, stopped and watched a performer play acoustic songs for probably about 45 minutes. There was a funny lady that kept dancing, and this guy who took the mic from him and freestyle rapped during “No Woman No Cry.” On the Métro Victor said that this was probably the best night he’s had in a couple months. I couldn’t agree more. So I’ll end with that.

Brent

(the pictures are from Thanksgiving 2 years ago, my my how time flies)

2006-11-19T22:00:00.000Z

Thanksgiving for the Weekend Before A Thanksgiving I will be Missing

My weekend was super.

Friday: Hung out with Victor and Guillaume after school, which was actually the first Friday I’ve actually hung out with friends (Victor didn’t have Chinese and Guillaume wasn’t with his girlfriend), so it was nice. We went and saw Borat, which made me realize why I am an exchange student, to show French people that not all Americans are ignorant/stupid/narrowminded etc. It was fun to just hang out with them, it felt really comfortable to just be able to joke with them and talk about stuff. So…ya

Saturday: Woke up at 7:20, went to throw the shot put for 2 hours (I pretty much get worse every time I go), came home, ate lunch with my host brother’s girlfriend and parents. Then I took a nap, which is becoming one of my favorite pastimes here. Like some days after school I’ll just come home and read on my bed, then put the book down and pass out for a while. But Saturday’s nap was legitimate and felt really good. It is kind of like my Saturday reward for not being able to sleep in because of sport. But then later that night I went over to Paul’s house (Paul is in the bible study/home group thing, from New Zealand) to watch the All Blacks (no, not all black people, but the New Zealand national Rugby team) play France. He lives with 3 other French people, so it was funny to hear the English cheers for the All Blacks then the French cheers/sighs for the French team. I had never really watched a rugby game before so that was good, but I still think I prefer American football. Paul runs this bike tour company, and he offered to give me a key to one of the bikes they use so I can get it whenever I want and bike around. Score! I had always kind of had this urge to bike around Paris, because walking gets kind of annoying and you can’t get very far. So that makes me happy.

Sunday: Lazy Sunday…wake up in the late afternoon. Well actually my “sleeping in” lasted until 10:35 despite my best efforts, but I added to my overall sleep by taking another nap (this one semi-inadvertently) while reading Harry Potter. I forgot how good those books were. I’m reading the 6th one and am having to ration it so it lasts longer (although I’ll finish in the next day or so). Kind of just hung out all day, then went to the home group at around 5:30. I helped Paul (the kiwi) make fajitas, so we ate well, had some more good beer/orangina/ginger ale (not all together) and a great discussion. They are all the nicest people, and I met some new ones. A guy Garth is from Australia and is hilarious. He is a musician and he was looking for a drummer, and I told him I played but wasn’t exactly amazing, but we are going to jam sometime so that should be fun. And this other guy Gene (but his name isn’t spelt like that, it’s spelt weird like Nd…somethingsomething) who is French.

So in conclusion, the weekend was a success.

I’m going to miss you all this week at Thanksgiving, so make sure to send some love (or turkey/stuffing/cheesy potatoes/monkey bread)

Brent

2006-11-13T21:27:00.000Z

Cap, As in Re-Cap

So Sunday was basically amazing. Waking up at 11:35 is just something I feel God is calling me to do more, but I may be reading the signals wrong. Anyways, hung out, got invited by my host parents to go to some Napoleonic mansion outside Paris to look at old porcelain, which I declined. Hung out. Then I left at 5ish to what is probably going to be my beacon of light over these next 5.4ish weeks till Christmas Break (can you tell I’m counting down?).

And this thing is the table group (kind of home/discussion group) with people from the church I went to Friday. There was me and 5 other awesome people, and I was the youngest by probably 9 years as they are all in their late 20s, which is fine by me, balances out all the high schoolers I see daily. I guess when I got there on time Justin/Jen (the people whose house it was at) knew I wasn’t French because, welp, I was on time. I met this awesome guy named Paul who’s from New Zealand who did a Rotary Exchange almost 10 years ago to Switzerland, and now lives in Paris and started a bike tour company with another guy at the church. It was amazing to talk to him, share some stories, and get advice and encouragement. Thank you Rotary for sending so many freaking people every year on exchanges, so at least I’m not as alone as I feel sometimes. But anyways, we drank some wine, some pop, some beer, and talked while the food was being cooked. The three other guys there are so nice and easy to get along with, so I felt perfectly comfortable for one of the few times since I’ve been here. We then ate, and had bible study. It was amazing to just dig into the word again with other people and bounce ideas and thoughts off of each other and get extremely off topic. It reminded me of bible study with Adam, minus all my best friends. Overall it was a great night, and that will be every Sunday night so definitely something to look forward to during the week.

Today, went to school, read a crap load, and just watched the most intense Lost episode probably ever.

Brent

2006-11-11T11:24:00.000Z

The Week In Review

Monday and Tuesday sucked. Again, the exchange is a freaking roller coaster, and I knew it was going to be hard after leaving Tyler to go back to school, but I basically just sat through school wondering what I was doing in France.

But alas, you can’t stay homesick forever, so the rest of the week was better. Thanks to Tyler letting me borrow Lost Season 2 I have something to look forward to when I come home at night.

My visa fiasco ended Thursday, which was even better coupled by the fact that I missed a three hour session of Math to go to my medical visit. I also got a sweet X-ray of my lungs (I’ve always kind of wanted an X-ray, I guess I can die happy now)/

Last night was amazing, I went to the Vintage Church in Paris. All the people I met were obscenely friendly and funny, and it was great to have some fellowship again. They have worship once a month (which is what last night was), and then they have home groups every week. It was really just down to earth and nonchurchy in a way I really like, so I will definitely be going back. It was really funny because they meet in this church where they rent out a room, and across the hall the Young Protestants were meeting. It was very ironic from the standpoint of what an American thinks about when he hears Youth Group, but there was beer flowing, wine, people smoking, people dancing on a stage to YMCA (we got invited in to teach them the motions). This guy Justin and I agreed it took Young Life’s outreach to a whole new level, and that if a church in America rented out their church to a youth group and came back finding anything similar to that, they would freak out. Also, Justin made the astute observation that “a lot more of my high school friends would have come to youth group if they’d known there was free beer.”

After me and 3 other guys went and grabbed a beer at “L’academie de la Bière” where I managed to spend 6.80 Euro on a beer (that’s basically the price their beers start at). But I had a great time, and a great discussion with them, and was reassured that everything I’ve been feeling over the past 2.5 months has been normal. Thus, I had an amazing night of fellowship and fun, which I will definitely be taking part in again.

Brent

2006-11-05T21:47:00.000Z

Germany

Sorry for the lack of a blog update this week, I just thought I’d keep you all waiting and give you a big ol’ recap today.

This week was basically amazing. I now know that I took for granted what a good friend means and what a meaningful conversation is worth. After being basically alone for two months, and mostly just having friends that are mere acquaintances, a week of kicking it with someone I truly know was just what I needed. I started out the week kind of worrying about what we were going to do the whole week, but I realized that doing nothing with a best friend is a thousand times better than doing something alone. On Sunday we watched 10 episodes of the second season of 24 and a lot of our other leisure time was spent either trying to find something we could understand on TV or eating. But that was more than I could have asked for. Tyler had this practicum thing Monday through Thursday where he worked for this guy until four, so I just slept in and started and finished the 5th Harry Potter. Sometimes Tyler’s host brother Phillipp would come home early from work (who, by the way, is the funniest German ever) and we’d hang out. Phillipp is the coolest kid. He’s so easy to get along with and has basically the same sense of humor as Tyler and I, so it was really fun to have him there. We also went to a party with his friends and played poker with them twice, which was really fun because they are all so funny and very receptive to Tyler and I’s “Americanness.” On Wednesday I got to go a friend’s house who I honestly never thought I would see again. He was an exchange student in Fort Collins two years ago and hung out with us a lot. Turns out the world is small and he lives about 15 minutes from Tyler, so I ate some good food at his house and we had a good talk. Tyler and I also met him for Coffee in Göttingen (about 35 minutes away) and had a great time. It was so good to see him, and he gave me some good advice and observations about this great thing we call an exchange. I’m kind of too lazy to go into specific detail about what we did each day, and you probably don’t have enough patience to read all of it, so I thought I’d just write a little bit. Love you all, and, obviously, something went wrong on the train ride home, as one of my trains was an hour late…awesome, but it wasn’t that bad, I watched 4 episodes of LOST oh my gosh intensity at its finest.

Brent

*we are sad to part :(

2006-10-27T11:52:00.001+01:00

A Joyous Adventure, Joyous Beyond Words

In case you were not aware, Murphy’s Law is universal and the Europeans have adopted it.

But first, the good news. The train ride was pretty uneventful and actually fun. There was a really pretty sunset and I was in a booth thingy with 4 other really cool people (well, I only actually talked to two of them, after the other two got off) but they both live in Paris and talking was a good way to pass the time. We kind of had this weird conversation in French and English, as I started talking to this girl in French, and then there was a Lebanese guy who spoke French, but they both spoke good English, so we’d kind of randomly switch languages and it felt pretty good to be able to use both. Anyways, on to the good stuff.

So my ticket said that I had a direct route to Karlsruhe with no connections, and as on the way back my ticket shows a connection through Strasbourg I didn’t worry about any connections. So we get to the end of the train ride, and although I arrived on time, I arrived in the wrong city. I guess I was supposed to switch in Strasbourg (thanks for the heads up guys) so I was on a train that just went south for an hour and a half to some dumb French city called Mulhouse. Then, I proceeded to wait about an hour for the next train (I just thank God there was a next train) to take me back to Strasbourg (that’s another hour and a half mind you) so I could take the next train to Karlsruhe. I got to Strasbourg at about 1 o’clock, and as 1 AM isn’t exactly the prime takeoff time for trains, I had to wait around till 6:54 for the next train.

As the train man not so kindly informed me, the train station was closing, so I took my backpack and messenger bag and proceeded to embark on an excursion of Strasbourg in the middle of the night. Luckily Turkish restaurants close obscenely late, because I hadn’t eaten really anything since lunch. But alas, the Turkish restaurant wasn’t going to stay open until 6:54, so I had to leave, but the nice man working there let me know there was a Café (aka Bar) that was open till 4 AM. So I went there, grabbed some German beer, and watched the rest of Gangs of New York that I had yet to finish after starting on the train. Again, 4 AM is not 6:54 so I had to figure out what to do after they closed. It was actually a beautiful night, and feeling somewhat supercharged by the presence of my backpacking backpack, I proceeded to sleep for about an hour on the street. Well I guess I laid there for an hour, and probably slept for about half of that. I don’t really understand why it suddenly felt a lot colder when I woke up, but I felt that since the train station was open I should go there (although you can’t lay down at train stations) and try to get some warm sleep. I fell asleep kind of awkwardly on a bench (I’m extremely thankful I can fall asleep pretty much anywhere) until before I had to leave, so that helped the extreme boredom that was beginning to set in.

On the next train (where I am writing this now), the attendant lady tried to tell me that I needed to pay an extra 60 Euros because my train ticket wasn’t valid for the right connection from Karlsruhe to Goettingen (where Tyler is picking me up). Thanks so much to debate and my love of a good argument, I gently informed her (well as gently as can be after the extreme agitation I’ve been feeling about this whole ordeal) of what happened and that I didn’t feel I should have to pay since the reason I missed the right train was because of a screw up on the part of her company. My persuasion (or maybe my exceedingly good looks) succeeded, and she wrote a little note on the back of my ticket so I won’t have to pay when I switch. SCORE! Seriously, if I would have had to pay 60 extra Euros I would have freaked out. But as of right now, I’m watching the sunrise over the German country side and it is beautiful. So I’m content because of that, and also because I’ll be able to make a connection to Goettingen right after I get off this train, so that in total I’ll only be 3 hours late.

It’s Midnight and I’m here, in Hann. Meunden. I didn’t just get here, just haven’t had time yet to post this bad boy. Being reunited with one of my best friends is basically the best thing that could happen at this moment of time. I spent the last 5 minutes of the train ride barely able to control my joy and thus smiling uncontrollably without control. Today was amazing, although slightly uneventful. We walked around Hann. Meunden, which is beautiful and despite all joking, is the European garden of Eden. It’s fall so all the leaves are turning and it was actually really hot today. So Tyler showed me around and we took some pictures (those will come later, as I haven’t loaded them yet). I then took a nap which was supposed to last an hour, but ended up lasting 2 and a half, as either my alarm didn’t go off or I don’t know what. But after 19 hours of travel and maybe 3 hours of sleep, I think a little sleep was warranted. We ate some dinner and had an amazing conversation, then Phillipp (tyler’s host brother) got home from Volleyball and yet another great conversation ensued. I am loving life. More updates later.

Tchuss,

Brent

p.s sorry i tried to post this last night but blogger was down

2006-10-24T18:40:00.000+01:00

2 Months + 1 day

Yesterday was 2 months.

Tomorrow I go to Germany.

Welp, that’s basically all that needs to be said.

Brent

P.S That picture is not recent, my host family did not recently insert a pool in their apartment. Although that would be amazing

2006-10-22T22:02:00.000+01:00

“Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the
One who makes me who I am”

That verse in Philippians somewhat sums up a lot of what I’ve been thinking about and struggling with. Before that Paul says “I’ve learned the secret of being content in any and every situation,” and my biggest struggle here is trying to find that secret of just being content with where I am. I will expand on this with a few examples.

I’ve realized that not many people are content with where they are. This is represented by a lot of conversations I have with people here that go somewhat like this.
Frenchy-“So have you been to New York?”
Me- “I’ve never been to New York City, but I’ve been to New York state”
Frenchy-“There’s a New York State?”
Me-“Uh..ya, it’s pretty big actually”
Frenchy-“Oh well New York is probably the best place in America, I definitely want to move there someday”
My thoughts-“And everyone in New York thinks Paris is the greatest place on earth and probably wants to move there too, but then when you switched you would both realize that you were happier where you started, and living in a city so draped in legend isn’t so great after all”

I guess that just goes along with what I said in an earlier post, about this exchange being a Christmas present. I spent so much time over the past year thinking about and wishing I was in France, all the while neglecting the fact that I was in the present moment living a perfectly happy life in (what I think is) the greatest place in America, and could die at any moment, so me wasting my time on the future was just that, wasting time. We spend so much time looking for that next stage in life, the next best thing, that we forget that nothing in life is guaranteed, not tomorrow, and definitely not next year. I think in order to really end the habit of always living in the future is to practice living in the present in the smaller things in life. Eating a meal and cherishing it as maybe the last meal you’ll ever eat, savoring every bite and being thankful, instead of simply pounding it down to satiate hunger and simply moving on to the day’s next activity. Or, while reading, simply taking in each page, each sentence, without worrying about when the chapter ends or what page you’re on. Only when we’re content with the little aspects of our life can we move on to be content with the overall. I think Gandalf says it best in the Lord of the Rings, "…All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." Or Dumbledore in Harry Potter says it pretty well too, “It does not do to dwell on dreams, Harry, and forget to live.”

I said in my last post that I was a little homesick, which was true. Something random that my host mom said really made me think about that though. She was talking about how it gets annoying to always be cleaning, but then added a disclaimer that she wasn’t complaining, as so many people would give so much to have a nice apartment. Sometimes there are those things that people say that stick out in your mind, that they’ll probably never remember saying, but for some reason stick in your mind. I just started thinking that, although it is normal to miss home, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. At least I have a home to miss, a lot of people I see every day on the streets of Paris don’t even have that.

Last night I went to a big party that everyone in my class (the 30ish kids I spend most of the day with) and it was extremely fun. Being around them outside a school setting was relieving, as they are all so nice and fun to be around. There honestly isn’t one I dislike. There was a lot of dancing, which was really fun, as any song with English (in other words every song) I was expected to sing along to (although I knew less words than they did) because, well, I’m the American kid. But I was sitting there, and it suddenly popped into my head that I wouldn’t have rather been anywhere else. Just being with all these people that are so fun to be around, laughing, dancing, speaking French, being in France, and being in Paris on a beautiful night. I felt a little of what it was to be completely content in my circumstances, although I will admit it’s a lot easier to be content having fun than it is to be content going to high school. But you have to start somewhere!

So sorry if this is a little deeper than you may have expected, it’s just something I’ve been thinking about a lot and wanted to share it with you (plural).

Thanks for listening friends

Brent

P.S I am visiting Tyler in 3 days, although for these next three days I’m going to have to work on being content where I am, and not spend all my time thinking about vacation!

2006-10-20T22:01:00.000+01:00

I Seriously and Honestly Hate Titling These Things

So this week was okay I guess. Paying attention in school is tiring, as evidenced by the fact that I come home and basically fall asleep on my bed while reading most afternoons.

I went to the Sainte-Chapelle on Wednesday which was beautiful. It is the smallish church on Ile de la Cité (the same island as Notre Dame) with the room full of stained glass. It was used in the Middle Ages to hold a ridiculous amount of relics purchased by King Louis IX. I went on a tour with a really funny tour guide so I think that made really interesting, as she explained a lot of the architecture and the hidden meanings behind things. Highly recommended stop for those traveling to Paris, another recommended stop is…

202 Boulevard Malesherbes
Paris, France 75017

…where you can send me some goodies if you feel so led.

The rest of the week was just normal, didn’t do that much. I’m visiting Tyler in 5ish days, can’t wait, as I’m getting a wee bit homesick right about now. This weekend there is this big party that everyone in my class is going to on Saturday night, so that should be fun. I think I’m just gonna make up for all the parties I didn’t go to in high school and see how high I can get my BAC…or actually probably not. But that should be fun to hang out with everyone that I spend all day with outside of class. But tomorrow I have Sport in the morning, so I’ll be signing off right about now, as I’m going to go watch some Arrested Development (aka the greatest show on earth) that some heaven-sent person put on the internet. Thank you putter-of-arrested-development-on-the-internet man/woman, you shall be blessed in the after life.

Brent

2006-10-17T18:58:00.000+01:00

This is the day, this is the day that the Lord did do…

These last two days have been a lot better than the last weekend. Yesterday I talked to my principal, told him I was sorry I was lazy, and told him that I was going to work harder. He was nice in talking to me, so that was a relief. That’s basically what I needed to get all that I was worrying off my chest so I was happy to have that over with.

Oh, also yesterday I only had 3 hours of school, so that was also a bonus.

I realized paying attention for an entire day in a foreign language is tiring, as I found out today after school when I fell asleep reading.

Today I scored some points (hopefully) with my head teacher, the one who talked to my host mom. I decided to bring my book to class (actually it was the wrong book I think), and she needed a book, and with my new strategy of not sitting in the back of class, I was able to let her use my book. Score number 1. Second, we started talking about the nucleus of an atom, and right after we started talking about it I looked up the word (it’s noyau in French), and directly after that she was like “let’s see…Brent…what’s in a nucleus.” I felt maybe a little spite in her voice, maybe a little “ha, let’s see if this stupid American knows anything.” My first response would have made the response “no” if that had been here thinking, as I said electron (I was thinking of an atom, I mean how long’s it been since I’ve thought about that stuff) but then I quickly corrected my thinking and answered the question. Therefore, I felt as if I proved a little something to my teacher about my new work ethic (although I honestly understand very little in that class). Score number 2. I think I just need to score a little every day to dig myself out of the hole I started with her.

I also had a quite funny (well, actually it wasn’t that funny) conversation with this kid who asks me constant questions about America, but is actually really nice. He started of (in French, bien sûr) saying “do you have a lot of blacks in your high school” and then in English said “a lot of n******.” I told him he shouldn’t say that, and he said “why, all the rappers say it.” So I was then forced to explain to him the finer aspects of the N-bomb and how being black, you are able to say it, but if you want to keep living, then as a white person you probably shouldn’t say that in the presence of black people.

The other day I met a really nice American on the bus. I was basically on top of him as there were a lot of people, and I heard him speaking English to his friend. Now, I usually don’t do this, but I got up a little courage and said “hey, I couldn’t help but hear you, are you American?” His response was “yeah, are you?” I responded “yes,” and his very genial response was “good for you.” (I think he thought I was just a dumb tourist…but I was still very glad to have become acquainted with him!)

Brent

2006-10-15T07:24:00.000+01:00

Blog-ness

Sorry this has been a few days in coming; it may get a little long and bogged down. Feel free to skim through, read a sentence or two, and then comment as if you read the whole thing. I won’t feel bad, I might not even know.

So Thursday was probably one of the funnest (Microsoft Word tells me funnest is not a word…ha, I’ll show them) days I’ve had since I’ve been here. I didn’t have my first two classes so I slept in till 9:25, then got to school at ten and we all found out our Biology teacher was gone. That meant I had four hours till my next class. So my friends and I went to my friend Guillaume’s house, listened to music, played some foosball, and watched some MTV (which was quite entertaining for me). It was extremely fun to just hang out with them. My 3 hours of math after that were not as fun, but I made it through, and then that night I went and had dinner with Rene’s sister Callie, who was in Paris on business, and who I had never met before. She was extremely nice, and I loved the conversation we had. It was great to have someone I actually had some connection with (Camp Elim etc) and that I could have a legitimate conversation with. It also helped that this conversation was over an amazing dinner at an amazing restaurant amazingly paid for by Callie’s company. Thank you expense accounts. This means we both got entrées (we still don’t know what I got), a bottle of wine, some good meat, crème brulée, and coffee. Basically amazing.

Friday, I walked around the Latin Quarter (which, unlike Rick Steve, I enjoy thoroughly), took some mediocre pictures, and had a pint (hey, it was happy hour, can’t pass that up) while reading the Message. Pretty successful night…until I find out that my host mom had talked to my head teacher and I guess she was somewhat unhappy with my performance at school. A large difference between the French and Americans (besides the French being extremely more rigid) is that a French person that you don’t really know (aka a teacher) will never talk to you directly and tell you what you are doing wrong or what you need to change. So, I really would have liked to have simply known from my teacher what her expectations of me were, as I was confused because I am not taking their large test at the end of the year etc. Regardless, I was lazy, so that is going to change on Monday.

Saturday. I had Sport this morning at 8, shot putted around for about 2 hours, came home, napped, ate, and then went and hung out with Victor, my friend Guillaume, and his girlfriend Marine. Guillaume is one of my best French friends and is extremely funny, and his girlfriend is very nice (I believe I say extremely a lot) so it was fun to hang out with them. This weekend is the big “Fête de la Science” (Science Festival) in Paris, so there are a lot of expositions at schools and all the science museums are free, so we went to one at the Palais de la Decouverte. We couldn’t really find it at first, which turned into a fun game of Victor and I asking random people where it was. It was a game because sometimes Victor and I would speak English to French people and pretend like we didn’t understand (you have to remember Victor speaks fluent English), or I would speak English very poorly to English speaking people (as if I didn’t speak any English) and Victor would pretend he knew a little more English than I, or I would speak French to English speaking people and pretend I didn’t speak any English. Sorry if that was kind of confusing, but it was really funny to go up to random people and jack around with them. The museum was interesting, but my friends all kind of went home pretty early so that kind of sucked. It was my host dad’s birthday today (of which I had no knowledge) and I had told my host mom I wouldn’t be home for dinner (as I didn’t know it was his birthday), so I just ended up having dessert and wine with them and their guests, which was good. I had some 1978 wine…I’m telling myself I could taste a difference but I may just be lying.

Oh, one more thing, last night I basically saw the funniest thing ever on the metro. I walk on to the train and hear this ridiculous techno music, see these speakers with a walkman hooked up, and then look around to see this ridiculous (I really don’t know how else to describe it) kid with bleached, short hair with the little shaved designs in it, getting his groove on really close to all the people on the metro while holding out a cup for money. He actually seemingly made a lot, so maybe as a celebration he decided as his grand finale to stand right in front of me (not facing me, but directly in front) and unbutton most of his shirt and dance. I couldn’t help but laugh. It also made me decide that that is one of my goals before I leave, to try to garner some cash on the metro by doing something ridiculous. This will most likely come in June, right before I leave.

I tried to post this yesterday but I guess it didn’t work. Well, I guess I’ll update you on today. Slept 12 hours, ate, walked through the Luxembourg Gardens, came home.

You are all beautiful people

Brent

2006-10-11T17:43:00.000+01:00

Some things I’ve noticed…

I’m still really bad at introducing myself, turns out I haven’t heard anyone besides me say “je m’appelle” so unless someone introduces me it can get semi awkward.

I still can’t drink wine without leaving residue on the glass, on my lips, or on my teeth.

Sudoku is an amazing way to pass time in class.

I don’t have to go to Spanish anymore, WOOT WOOT.

Unless I take everyday as it comes and stop worrying about tomorrow (or stop getting uber excited for my vacations) then this year is going to go by way too quickly.

There’s just something about drinking a glass of wine at a Parisian café…

This exchange is kind of like a Christmas present. I wished and hoped for it for so long, and now that I got it I want to move on to something else.

I need to not want to move on to something else.

I am truly blessed with a few good friends (I just wish they had more time to hang out, or spent less time with their girlfriends).

I hate seeing something that I find very funny, and that my friends would also find very funny, but not being able to share that with them and thus being forced to laugh awkwardly by myself.

I still hate shaving.

If I didn’t have my MP3 player I would be in an awful mood every morning.

Normandy is beautiful (just not every weekend).

I <3 Wine, Cheese, and Bread.

There are ignorant people everywhere, not just in America.

Responding to the questions “So do you like George Bush?” and “What do you think about Iraq?” gets pretty annoying.

It’s probably not a good idea to try to read a book that, when every French student who sees it says, “oooh, I couldn’t even understand half of that book”

The greatest thing about being an exchange student is the universally applicable excuse of “oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t understand.”

I have awful table manners.

My awful table manners are often corrected by my host mom.

It is difficult to explain what a Cornucopia is in French...very difficult. What makes it even more difficult is the fact that as I tried to draw it the kid I was explaining it to thought I was drawing a picture of Cartman from South Park, obviously my drawing prowess hasn't improved despite all my doodling during class. Well, Practice makes Perfect.

I am done writing this, because I emptied my brain of imaginative thinking.

Bisous,

Brent

2006-10-09T18:17:00.000+01:00

This Little Weekend of Mine, I’m Gonna Let It Shine

So basically my weekend consisted of this. I got up to go to Sport at an unholy hour on Saturday morning, showed my shot put who was boss and launched her 9.5 meters (I hope you’re all proud of me, it was the longest in the class, and for any of you who thought I had totally atrophied after I stopped playing hockey, I leave that fact as proof against your assumption). Anyways, on to my weekend. So turns out (as I have no prior knowledge of anything that happens in this apartment) my host brother’s girlfriend was over for the weekend (she lives in Brussels), and we were having lunch with her and her parents. So, champagne and wine ensued (as always), as well as semi awkward conversation (well I guess it wasn’t really an awkward conversation, more like as always I sit and don’t say much, because whenever I realize I can say something and figure out how to say it, then they are really far past that subject and it would be ridiculous for me to bring it up). I then proceeded to nap for about an hour, then my host parents and I headed off to Normandy…again. I don’t really get why we left, as the parents were staying in a hotel (and I figured if they got along at least half way decently they would hang out together over the weekend), and the host brother/host girlfriend were staying in the same room in the apartment…kinda awkward.

The weekend in Normandy, although beautiful weather wise, was nothing to write home about (although I guess that’s what I’m doing now). Although there was a pretty funny conversation that took place as we were driving there. Keep in mind this is at about 6:40 at night, and roughly translated from French.
Host Dad: “So we’re going to go to mass at 7, would you like to come”
Me: (Thinking he means in the morning) “ya, sure, I’d love to”
…Silence…
Me: (rethinking) “umm, maybe not, I think I want to sleep, you know, I only get one day out of the week to sleep in”
Host Mom: “So you want us to leave you in the car?”
Me: “uhhh?? Oh, it’s tonight, like in 20 minutes, alright, ya sure.”
Okay maybe that’s not as funny as I thought it was, but my favorite part is when my host mom asked me if I wanted them to leave me in the car.

Anyways we went to mass (extremely boring, but in a really pretty church), I ate, I slept for 12 hours, I read a ton, and then we drove home.

I was supposed to meet Rene’s sister for dinner last night, as she is in Paris on business, but her phone didn’t work so it didn’t work out. I, not wanting to sit around with my host family any more, decided to go search for her at her hotel. No luck. Then I went to Notre Dame, because Rene said she might have gone there, so I decided there was an off chance I’d see her, and it was also a beautifully perfect night. Notre Dame is beautiful at night, and I walked around the Latin Quarter and ate some probably not fully cooked Greek, but overall it was a success, except of course, for finding Rene’s sister.

Basically every Sunday night I want to kill myself thinking about waking up for school in the morning, but today wasn’t that bad. I only had 4 hours of classes, because my Spanish teacher was gone and it turns out it’s pointless for me to go to English (who knew?), so I no longer have to attend that awful, awful class, but I will probably have another, hopefully more useful class like French, during those hours.

Today I I officially became European. I walked through Montmartre, took artsy pictures, went to a Café, drank a beer, smoked a cigar, and read Victor Hugo. I believe I have fulfilled my duty of becoming fully immersed in a culture, and I am coming home tomorrow.

Brent

Actually, I am not coming home, sorry to falsely excite you all.

Translation of Picture:

Sign—The Portrait of my Master
Below, still on sign—Author/Anonymous Work

2006-10-09T18:09:00.000+01:00

2006-10-06T20:28:00.000+01:00

I Hate Making Titles for These

Let’s see. Yesterday we had dinner with the really funny speaking people from Quebec that we met randomly in a café in Bayeux and saw again randomly and had lunch with at Mont St. Michel. They came over and I had fun listening to their RIDICULOUS accent, drinking champagne and wine, and eating some good food/cheese/bread. Probably one of my highlights every night is eating my host mother’s amazing cooking, as well as eating amazing French cheese on amazing French bread. Other than that, I didn’t do very much yesterday. Actually, I did go to a Café for two hours, had a glass of wine (which I wouldn’t have had if I knew we were having company, but I’m pretty out of the loop here, as in they don’t tell me anything that’s going on, so it’s not my fault), listened to a Rob Bell sermon, read, and worked on my little report for the French Rotary people I have to write.

Today…today. Friday’s are usually pretty good because I just have labs in Bio and Physics then one or two hours of Math. But today my teeth were really hurting me for some reason, so I came home, took a nap, and have pretty much just been rocking out in my room since 1. We are going to the country home again this weekend (kind of over going there every weekend, especially when my host brother stays at home), but what can you do? I also have Sport tomorrow at 10 (AWESOME, YES, AMAZING!). This was probably extremely boring to read, but I really don’t have any funny anecdotes or stories to put in. I’m going to go watch a movie my host parents gave me to watch, Amadeus, about Mozart. Hopefully it’s good. Well, I’ll let you know Sunday how the weekend/my movie was.

A Bientôt

Brent

2006-10-04T21:16:00.000+01:00

“Why count the days, when one is enough for a man to know all of
happiness?

-Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brother’s Karamazov

That quote pretty much explains today.

-I only had 4 hours of school
-I ate an amazing 60 Euro lunch at Rotary (don’t worry, it was on Rotary)
-Rotary gave me 80 Euros
-I FINALLY got everything worked out for my Visa, hooray! (my medical visit is Nov 9th)
-I now have no need to worry about my Visa situation
-It was unexpectedly sunny and nice
-It was very sunny and nice
-I went on a walk in this beautiful park, Parc Montsouris (guided by my friend Rene’s amazing present of 50 City Walks: Paris, which is my new favorite pastime)
-I got to take pictures that I now share with you (although I did edit them a tad)
-I fell asleep in the grass, in the sunlight
-I read, in the grass, in the sunlight
-I had a legitimate conversation with my host parents at dinner, that did not simply consist of me preemptively nodding my head to what they were saying, and then getting caught having no idea what they said
-I don’t have school till 9 tomorrow
-Oh ya, and I live in Paris

Brent!

2006-10-03T20:50:00.000+01:00

The Confession Of An Ardent Heart, In Verse

The Yom Kippur Party I did not attend.
T’was a party of a friend’s friend
And if friend One can go not
Joyful, it can be not

So to Montmartre I traveled
At Sacré Coeur I marveled
As I sat on the Terrace
A Café, and Victor Hugo, took away the coldness

The clouds let out their rain
Sitting in Sacré Coeur, I felt sane
In the quiet, in the still
My joy, fulfilled

Today,
Was Today,
Nothing significant,
To say

2006-10-01T20:52:00.000+01:00

The Weekend I Live for the Weekend

In my humble opinion, I’d say this weekend was a success. Had P.E Saturday morning. I’m throwing shot put which is kind of funny. Then me, Victor, and Gabriel (the one’s in the pictures from a little while ago) went to Gabriel’s apartment (close to the Eiffel Tower) and made lunch. Gabriel got sick, so then Victor and I headed out into the Latin Quarter to hang out. We visited the Pantheon, where all the old, famous Frenchmen are buried. It was beautiful, but kind of a letdown inside. I mean, you can only look at Voltaire’s grave for so long before it becomes a little boring. Good thing I got in for free because I’m “under 18.” Then we walked through the Luxembourg Gardens, which are beautiful, and even more so with the falling leaves. Basically we walked a lot. We looked in a bunch of stores (books, cds, clothes) and I actually bought some clothes! I found a store where not everything in the display was over 100 Euros, so I went in and bought a 2 track jackets (1 for 7 euros…ridiculous! And the other for 20) so I’m pretty content with my first clothing purchases in Paris. Basically we walked a lot, but it was really fun. It was great to talk to him, as he is extremely nice, and I can feel my French improving daily.

I figured since this was my first Sunday since I arrived that I was in Paris, I would try to go to church, so I went to the American Church of Paris. It was in a really pretty building, and there were lots of people there. It felt weird having so many people speak English around me. The Pastor-ess kind of annoyed me. She pretty much spoke to us like we were a group of 4 year olds at story time, so it was a little hard for me to get into the message, as in I can’t even really recall what it was about, except I do remember her talking about some Anime movie she watched with her daughter. But we had communion so that was good. Not sure if I’ll be going back, wasn’t exactly the greatest experience I’ve had at a church, but it was still good to go. I went back home for lunch (wasn’t planning on it as I was pretty far away but then my host dad called), then went back out again to visit the Picasso Museum. Most of the museums are free on the first Sunday of the month, so that’s why I went. I was lucky and missed the line, and walked around there for a while. Some things I noticed: Picasso really liked guitars, like really liked them. All his naked pictures look the same (not naked pictures of him, like the one’s he drew, you get the point). His cubism is really cool (although sometimes I’d stand in front of a picture, read the title, and spend the next 5 minutes trying to figure out what the crap was happening without success). And Museums aren’t my favorite thing ever (I’d much rather walk around the streets and take pictures). Then I went to this awesome Café that’s set up like a living room, had myself a glass of really good wine, and read and worked on my SPU essay for 2 hours. It was amazing. I then walked around some more, and was basically pretty content with life. I still am basically content with life because I don’t have school till 2 tomorrow (because it’s Yom Kippur and I have 2 Jewish teachers) and because I got invited to a Yom Kippur party tomorrow night (lots of food). So I’ll be getting back to you about that. Thanks for reading friends.

Brent

P.S. The pictures are from today (Sunday) because I used Victor’s camera yesterday and don’t have the pictures yet

2006-09-29T20:42:00.000+01:00

Don’t Correct Your English Teacher

So yesterday, just chilling in my English class (which I always feel awkward in, because if my teacher is wrong, or I think she’s wrong, I never really know if I should correct her, but I learned that it should be never yesterday), when my English teacher starts saying “to legitimate” (which really no one says, I didn’t even think it was right, turns out it was) so I raise my hand and say (politely keep in mind) “I think it’s to legitimize” and her response is this “well, I was right yesterday (I thought ice floes was spelt ice flows), so that means I’m right today.” I really wanted to say something about how impeccable her logic was, or ask her if she wanted a cookie, but I kept those thoughts to myself. So I thought everything was cool, but the rest of class was kind of awkward. Then, right before my next class, I get told I need to go see the Proviseur (aka principal). Turns out my teacher had told him what happened, so he freaked out and yelled at me and this was basically the extent of what he said (which was in French, so I didn’t understand all of it) “it’s not your place to correct your teacher, you speak American and she speaks English. If our school system doesn’t convenience you, I can show you the door.” So I kind of tried to explain that I was just trying to help, but basically I just said sorry. I really wouldn’t have cared if she had just come and talked to me and been like “hey, don’t correct me” (especially because at the beginning she said “oh you’ll be a great help this year”). So anyways, I went to her later and said sorry, so everything should be fine.

But overall yesterday wasn’t all bad. I played volleyball at lunch with some kids so that was fun (they are all really good), and today I went to try to visit St. Chapelle (a cathedral by Notre Dame) but I missed the last entrance by seriously a minute. I then walked around Notre Dame (which I hadn’t before) and found that there’s a really sweet park around back of it, with extremely pretty views of both the cathedral and the Seine). I walked around there for a while, took pictures, got a baguette, and sat and read The Brother’s Karamazov. It started raining so I just under a tree sat and listened to some music, and it was pretty relaxing. Oh, I also visited the Deportation Memorial (for those deported to concentration camps by the Nazis) and it was really well put together and powerful. That is all.

Brent

2006-09-27T21:52:00.000+01:00

Rollercoaster

The title of my blog is how my friend Tyler and I have chosen to describe an exchange. A roller coaster of emotion. This blog is evidence of that.

Yesterday was fun. In my Physics class we had “class elections” and I somehow (and by somehow I mean I raised my hand as a joke) got entered into the vote. All the other candidates got up and talked about how they would be a good attaché between the students in our class and the teachers, and then it got to me. I didn’t really think it was necessary to give a speech, but the masses started chanting for me to do one in English. So I got up and rattled off something about how they shouldn’t vote for me because I wouldn’t really have any idea what to do and that I wouldn’t be able to communicate their wants to the teachers. I don’t really know how much they understood, but someone asked me if I’d be able to organize a Ski trip to Colorado, and I said I probably could (psss…I lied) so that probably tilted a couple more votes my way. Turns out I tied for last in the election, but I guess the fact that I tied for last means that the kid I tied with needs to work harder at his electioneering or I have a God-given ability to charm (like my friend Evan). I’m leaning towards the first.

Today sucked. After school I went to the extreme south of the city (takes about 30 minutes of travel) for the 3rd week in a row to renew my visa. Everything was going great, not too much waiting, all my paperwork was fine (3rd times a charm…well, not always), and then I was finishing up and got told to go make my medical appointment. I guess just by luck of the draw (or God likes do throw me curve balls or something) the only 3 dates for the medical visit are during my trip to Germany. I asked probably 30 times if they were the only dates available, and I guess they are. I tried calling my host dad (because he is a doctor for the prefecture of police, who does the medical checks) but he didn’t answer, and they really didn’t care that my host dad was the doctor for the prefecture of police. I told them I couldn’t change my dates (which really I can’t because my host parents are going to be somewhere else when I’m gone and I can’t just stay at home). And they were like “do you want the appointment or not” and I was like “it’s not a matter of wanting, I can’t” (and this is in French remember, and my voice is raising continually because of the intense frustration mounting in my body). So I called my host mom and she said that I should just not take an appointment and my host dad would call and figure everything out. So I did that, but basically all my time there was lost, as I’ll either have to go back after my vacation or next week with some type of document saying I have a medical visit. My host dad emailed some high up person today so he should get back to him tomorrow. So everything should work out, but if you could just pray that it does in fact work out that would be FAN-TASTIC!

Hopefully tomorrow is the really relaxing part of the roller coaster where they bring you refreshments and a nice water bed to sleep on. I don’t know on which roller coaster they do that, but I hope it’s the one I’m on tomorrow.

Brent

2006-09-25T21:46:00.000+01:00

A Day of Wonder and Excitement

Today was great. Me, Victor (Asian), and Gabriel (puffy cheeks, got his wisdom teeth taken out this weekend) went to McDonald’s (second time since Saturday…yay for globalization), then went to Parc Monceau (this sweet Park we go to) and hung out in the grass for an hour. It was a really nice day, and I tried to retan my feet (I wore my Chacos for the first time today and realized how quickly you can lose a tan). It was very relaxing, and also very fun to hang out with my friends.

So I told myself this week I was not just going to come home and sit in my room because, well, I live in Paris and there’s a lot to do. So I decided to visit a Museum with paintings of Paris and stuff about Paris. I rode the Métro for about 40 minutes to get there, because it was kind of far away, then I got there and realized that all the city museums are closed on Monday, awesome forethought Brent. So then I took out my trusty map and found my way to the National Archives of France, which I figured would be open, which it was, but only for 20 more minutes. So I used their bathroom and kindly left. I then decided to walk to Ile de la Cité (the island where Notre Dame is located) to visit the other cathedral on the island (St. Chapelle), which I found out was also closed. So great day of walking around aimlessly, but walking around Paris and taking pictures definitely beats sitting in my room, so I’d say I’m going to continue to do that.

That was my day, I bought tickets to visit Tyler today. Lovely. Can’t wait.

Brent

(oh, the 3rd picture is my school, if you’re wondering)

2006-09-24T23:21:00.000+01:00

Weekend

School on Saturday should be banned, especially P.E. that is located no where near the place you go to school. Actually it wasn’t that bad. We did shot put for a little bit, did some weird long jump stuff, and I guess I have to decide which one I want to specialize in or something, because they choose what their best at because their grades count for their big end of the year test. So I don’t know which one I’ll choose (I think I can also choose running 500 meters 3 times), but it kind of hurts my feet to run because I only have my Pumas (no I told you so’s Mom!).

After me and 2 guys went to get some McDonald’s, which was amazing. Grease is good every once in a while, and it reminds me of the U.S (although they lack a dollar menu, or even a Euro menu for that matter).

We left for the country home at around 3, and nothing too exciting happened but I do have a pretty funny event to recount. So I love going to the grocery store and following my host dad around picking out cheese/wine, because he just has some innate knowledge about those 2 subjects that I’d like to acquire. Right now in France they are having this big wine sale called “Foire aux Vins” which is during the grape harvest where they have sales on all last year’s wine to get ready for the new stuff. So they had some bottles open, so my host dad showed me the finer points of some different wines, and I guess he hasn’t bought a lot of wine in a while, so in perfect Miles fashion (“ooh, it’s on sale, I’ll get 7”…kind of like that time at Sam’s Club where my Dad bought a golf club set for my brother, who, as a rule, only plays golf when Haley’s comet is flying overhead, which is to say not often…but who am I to complain, I get to use them…wow this was a long, unstructured tangent) we left with 5 cases of wine (6 bottles each) and the guy helping us gave us two pretty much full bottles of 15 Euro wine. Let’s just say the grocery bill was almost 400 euros…kind of intense. But I did get to drink some good wine this weekend, sleep and read a lot…but that’s pretty much it.

Thanks for tuning in friends,

Brent

2006-09-22T21:34:00.000+01:00

Almost One Month

Tomorrow will mark one month after I left home. Kind of crazy. It feels like it’s gone by pretty fast, but everyday goes by kind of slow…but I think that’s how life is in general.

I’ve been doing great lately, the guys I’ve been hanging out with are awesome, and I haven’t been sitting in school slitting my wrists. I think I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ll be here for the next 9 months whether I like it or not, so I might as well make the most of it.

Today I spent about 3 and a half hours in 2 different cafés (one at lunch, one after school) with my friends. I think I’m going to die of second-hand smoke…so I think I might as well start smoking so at least I can control my own destiny. Completely kidding, I have no desire to start smoking…don’t worry.

I’m going to the country home again this weekend. I’m kind of sick of it to be honest, because the last 2 weekends I’ve been invited to do things, and I never can because we are always in Normandy. Although it is relaxing and I get to read a lot, I’d like to hang out with my friends more than just at school and a little bit after. But I guess we aren’t going up next weekend so that’s good.

Signing off,

Brent

2006-09-20T20:17:00.000+01:00

Four Weeks

Let’s just say today was…interesting. I got up in a good mood, as I found out last night that I am able to travel during my break in October to visit my good friend Tyler who is living in Deutschland (aka Germany). Otherwise I would have been sitting with my host parents as they renovate this barn thing they just bought…not my idea of fun. So I was pretty happy to be alive and pretty happy to have made it to the milestone of 4 weeks. My happiness would change later in the day.

I was also happy because I only had 4 hours of class today, as I got out an hour early to go have lunch with my rotary club. This is when my trouble’s started. I had been planning to go to Porte Dauphine (a metro stop, and where Rotary actually meets), but I thought I remembered my rotary guy saying Place Dauphine. So during my philosophy class, I was looking at the map, just to make sure I was going to the right place. Turns out there’s a Place Dauphine on Ile de la Cité (where Notre Dame is, middle of the city) and Porte Dauphine (very west end of the city, again, the place I was planning on going to before I decided to check). So I, at the last moment, decided that it was Place Dauphine. So I traveled for probably 20 minutes on the Métro to get there, only to find that there was no Rotary Club, as the Rotary Club was at Porte Dauphine. I had walked a good way to get the Place Dauphine, so I had to walk back and navigate through one of the biggest Métro stops in Paris to get on the right line and go to Porte Dauphine. Once I got there, I realized I actually didn’t really know where they met, I just knew to get off at that Métro. So I decided to try the Pavillion Dauphine (kinda sounds like Place right?), but started going the wrong way, stepping in dog crap, said some bad words, and turned around. Pavillion Dauphine was the place I was searching for, and I entered 40 minutes late sweating profusely. Luckily I was the youngest person there by probably 30 years, so the welcome people knew exactly who I was.

Rotary in Europe is a little different than in Fort Collins. Basically it’s the rich, old man’s club. There were maybe 5 women, every man was in a suit, and I seriously thought the guy next to me was going to die sometime during the day’s presentation. The sign at the welcome table said lunch was 57.50 Euros (around 70 dollars), so I felt pretty good about eating for free. Except it seems somewhat ironic that, in order to receive my monthly stipend, I have to come to a monthly meeting and eat their expensive food. Maybe next time I’ll just forgo eating and ask for 57.50 in cash or check. Or maybe not. I felt extremely awkward eating (as my table manner’s aren’t exactly up to par with upper class Paris as of yet), but the food was great. It wasn’t the most exciting time of my life, but it was good to eat expensive food for free and get to meet and talk to my rotary guy. I also came home 80 euros richer, which isn’t something to complain about.

Next adventure. I went, again, to renew my visa. I was sure I had everything this time, as I went through and checked everything. So I traveled for probably another 40 minutes to the extreme south end of the city. This time there was no line, so things were looking up…that is until the lady told me I needed some more originals that I didn’t have with me. Awesome, you know what lady, I’ll just come back next week. I LOVE SPENDING MY WEDNESDAYS TRAVELING ACROSS TOWN FOR NOTHING…MAYBE I’LL MAKE A FREAKING CLUB FOR IT. So that made me kind of angry (I didn’t really yell that though, it might be hard to translate into French), but the day didn’t end too bad. Leo (the brazilian exchange student) and I hung out again, so it was good to see him and talk to him.

Let’s hope tomorrow will be a little more mellow.

Brent

2006-09-20T20:15:00.000+01:00

2006-09-18T20:08:00.000+01:00

A Colorado Day in Paris

Today was a very good day. I had history first, with a new teacher as our old one seemingly disappeared last week and was replaced. We were talking about America in the 1950s including our form of government. I attempted to explain, or rather summarize in a sentence, the Electoral College system. This was somewhat difficult to do in French, but I think I got the point across. I got the feeling they think the Electoral College is the dumbest thing ever created, but I didn’t really have the French capacity to explain how and why it was created. It’s kind of funny, because when I speak in class (which is not very often) everyone kind of turns around and looks at me and it’s kind of intimidating.

I found out I didn’t have my next class (Philosophy) so I decided to take advantage of the light rain and go to Sacré Coeur (the white basilica, also known as my favorite monument in Paris) and listen to some music, get wet, and overall contemplate life. It was great.

Lunch was really fun, me and Victor (the nice kid who sits next to me), this really funny kid named Gabriel, and 3 of the girls I’ve been hanging out with (Marion, Rosa, and Tilla) went to Rosa’s apartment and made lunch. It’s kind of in the sketch part of Paris (Pigalle, on Montmartre, lots of sex shops, where I got off on the wrong metro stop to go to Sacré Coeur earlier in my adventures) but her apartment is on the 6th floor and has an uh-mazing view of Paris. We made some pasta, or I should say Victor made some pasta and it was really good. It was great having some other guys there with me, because sometimes it’s kind of awkward when I just hang out with the girls alone.

After school it was really sunny (hence the title of my blog, as it was raining in the morning and then beautiful in the afternoon), so I decided to walk home. Again, listening to music is my favorite thing to do when I’m by myself. I was just content to be alive, looking at the leaves gather on the ground, and I realized fall is probably my favorite time of the year, not too hot, not too cold, and b-e-a-utiful. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I actually live in Paris, and I’m not just dreaming or on a vacation. Today was a good day.

Brent

2006-09-17T20:19:00.000+01:00

Normandy, Volume 2—A French Wedding and Mont St. Michel

*Warning, this is kind of long*

Friday, right before we left, we realized that the Citroën (the car that we usually take to Normandy) had bad breaks, so we loaded up into my host dad’s little Peugot (2 door, my backpack was in between Louis and I in the back, with a whole bunch of crap shoved in the trunk), and drove to the Country Home to spend the night. We stopped by Pizza Hut and I learned my new favorite French phrase “A Volonté” and it means “Free Refills”!!! So it was pretty joyous to not have to religiously guard my sips of Coke, I could freaking down it and no one could do anything about it. I felt American again.

We woke up the next morning at 7ish, ate Tartines (which are little toast like things, but I eat them everyday before school so I am starting to hate them) and left to go see the Bayeux Tapestry in, where else but Bayeux, Normandy! The tapestry was cool, it’s kind of weird seeing something made in the 11th century (for those of you who don’t know, it recounts, among other things, the Norman conquest of Britain), and since I love that time in history it was fun to learn about things I didn’t know before…which I guess is the definition of learning, but you get the point. We walked around Bayeux, which is a really cute little town with a sweet Cathedral and a cool river running through it. We ate at a Café and sat next to a Quebecois couple who were very nice, and we had a good conversation with them. Their accent is hilarious. I never noticed it that much, even when my good friend Jeffrey and I were in Quebec, but having the parallel of my host parents and the Quebecois really made it come out. I could understand most of what they said, but it seemed like I suddenly understood a lot less when they spoke directly to me, kind of made me feel stupid.

We then went to our Chambre d’Hôte (houses in the country side in which the homeowners rent out rooms like a hotel), and got all snazzy for the wedding. Not gonna lie, I was looking pretty hot in my suit (as always), as we rolled up to the cute little church where the wedding was being held. (See picture for both my hotness and the church). The wedding was a little unorganized (but I guess since my amazing sister-in-law Alyssa wasn’t running it, I couldn’t expect much), as in the Groom forgot something at home and drove home like when the wedding was supposed to start. It was also long, pretty boring, and pretty catholic. Although it was nice to hear 1 Corinthians 13 (which is read at almost every wedding) read in French instead of English, it didn’t feel so overused.

It lasted 2 hours, and then the real party started. We all drove to this big Mansion/Chateau type place close by, stood outside for about an hour as the Bride and Groom pulled a Miles family and took pictures in front of the steps with basically every combination of people they could (except, of course, me), although there were far fewer people taking pictures than at Miles family functions. We finally made it inside, only to eat hors-d’oeuvres for about 2 hours. I had some champagne and talked to a really funny, and old, guy named Ray. He’s from Massachusetts and is retired here with his wife, but speaks no French. So we talked in English. He’s just one of those amazing old guys who knows basically everything about everything, let’s you know fun facts about everything he knows about, and actually speaks to you as if you weren’t 5 years old. I also talked to a funny French man (in English, as basically everyone there just spoke to me in English, but I was really tired so I didn’t mind) who loves America. He told me that his parent’s generation was extremely thankful for Americans, because “without them, we’d be speaking German right now.” I thought that was very powerful, and very against everything we hear in America about how the French hate us. Although I haven’t heard anyone praise George Bush, everyone listens to American music, eats American food, watches American movies and TV shows, speaks English, and wants to visit New York. They dislike our government, not us. Remember that.

Anyways, I’ll get off my soapbox. We then moved in for Dinner, which took an obscenely long time, and I got the immense privilege of sitting at the kid’s table, which means I didn’t get to indulge in Wine or Champagne at dinner L. It was pretty awkward, although Louis’ cousins who were at our table were nice, and they knew where Colorado was because one of them loved the Denver Nuggets. I left once, went to the bathroom and then fell asleep on a chair outside. I came back in and everyone was dancing. It was hilarious. Watching half-drunk, middle-aged French people dancing to 80’s music is a memory I’ll never forget. I actually joined in for a little, and it was immensely awkward but really funny, and I had to cover my mouth because I was uncontrollably smiling at how awkward it really was. I had some more champagne, went outside, fell asleep on another chair (I was really tired). I then came in, sat down on a chair and half watched people dance and half went in and out of sleep. We left at 2 in the morning, almost 11 hours after we left our hotel.

Wow I’ve written a lot, I’ll keep Sunday short. We went to Mont St. Michel, which is this big fortified town with an amazing Church on an island in the middle of the Sea. When the tide comes in, the water surrounds it, but the tide wasn’t in today. My host mom used to go there all the time, so she gave me the whole history and it was very interesting, but I’ll save you from that. I loved getting to walk through a legitimate Medieval village, sometimes it’s just crazy thinking about what people were doing on the same street 500 or 1000 years ago. We somehow randomly ran into the Canadians again, so we had lunch with them and it was very nice. We had the special Mont St. Michel omelettes, but they kind of left something to be desired. I guess there’s a big secret about how they make it. We then went and saw a museum with a lot of old manuscripts from Mont St. Michel. In short, I loved Mont St. Michel, it was amazing and beautiful and old. Definitely my favorite thing I've seen so far. We drove home. I’m done writing. I’m sorry to write so much.

Love and Miss You All,

Brent

2006-09-15T17:08:00.000+01:00

And a French Wedding it will Be…

So yesterday was a pretty good day overall, I went to lunch (McDonald’s…yummy) with two really nice kids. The one that’s really becoming a pretty good friend is Victor. He speaks English pretty fluently so he helps me out sometimes, and is really nice and inquisitive. I liked being able to talk to them, as they asked a lot of questions, and I felt my French speaking improving a lot.

But, that is not very exciting. What is exciting is that I’m going to Normandy this weekend to a wedding. We are sleeping at the country home tonight, then going to visit Mont St. Michel tomorrow (it’s the really famous castle thingy that has the tide roll in and out around it), and then the wedding is on Sunday. I’m pretty excited to sight see, as well as discover what French weddings are like (I’m assuming a lot of champagne). So I will update Sunday and let you know how it was!

Brent

2006-09-13T22:27:00.000+01:00

The Day

So for the second time this week, I got up an hour earlier and needed and went to school. I guess I don’t have the omniscience that most other people in my class had to know that my history teacher would be absent again (or maybe it’s cause I didn’t know that “jusqu’à nouvel ordre” means “until further notice,” and I actually read that a couple of times the day before on the board they have for absent teachers). It actually turned out to be pretty good, I hung out with some really nice people, talked about French politics, American fashion, and French stereotypes of American (and vice versa). I also taught them a swing dancing move they were not aware of. I learned there are basically 3 versions of Americans that the French think of…1. The cocky “I can do whatever I want American.” 2. The Fat, Obese American. 3. The Texan (aka Jeff).

After school, I went to get my visa extended. This required me traveling for about 45 minutes after school, waiting in line for about an hour, and then realizing I needed my actual passport, whereas my papers from rotary said I only needed photocopies…so it was basically a waste of time to go all the way down there. Actually, it wasn’t, because it brought me into the southern part of town, where the really cool Brazilian exchange student that I met at the welcome weekend lives. We hung out, ate, walked around, and saw the amazingly funny movie Little Miss Sunshine. I laughed harder than I have in a long time. It was great to have some good company, and to be able to talk to someone in English and not feel awkward. I am really tired. So I am going.

Brent

2006-09-12T20:26:00.000+01:00

A Great Day to be an American

Today was a good day. It all started with me going to the wrong philosophy class. I guess there are two, one (at 8) for the kids who take German and another (at 9) for the kids who don’t. I got up early and went to the 8 o’clock one, but that meant I got an hour off to lay on a park bench and listen to music…which was very relaxing, as it was a beautiful day in Paris today. It also meant that my friends actually acknowledged my presence, and I got to hang out with them again today. I don’t really know what happened, or if I was just overreacting, but I think that yesterday it was more of me being mad so avoiding them then blaming the avoidance on them. So after they asked me what I was doing in the wrong Philosophy class, I actually made an effort to talk to them, and it worked out very well. Especially because we had 3 hours for lunch…

My history teacher was gone again today, so the 2 hour block of his class before lunch was gone, so me and my friends (yes, no parentheses today) bought two pizzas and went to one of the girl’s apartments and ate it. It was very good pizza, but I longed for some Positano’s and some free refills of pop. We played a card game where you thought of words that started/ended with certain combinations of letters, so it was fun (and frustrating) to test out my knowledge of French…I ended up losing, but I’m okay with that now.

Then I had 2 hours of Specialized Math, but I don’t think I listened to more than 5 minutes of what they were doing. I read some Harry Potter and daydreamed a bit. As I said, it was a beautiful day so I walked home and listened to some more music. I’ve noticed since I’ve been here how much I love music, and how it complements my mood. Good days are definitely better when they have a soundtrack to accompany them.

Brent

2006-09-11T21:11:00.000+01:00

The Weekend

School…Saturday…what? Who invented this anyways? You think they could find a couple extra hours during the week for P.E…like maybe take away some of the 8 HOURS OF MATH I HAVE DURING THE WEEK…but this is France so they don’t think of stuff like that. Anyways, it wasn’t that bad. I just want you to think it was bad so I can gain your sympathy. We just went to the gym, which is in the basement of the school (oh and no bleachers) and listened to someone talk about who knows what then we got in groups for P.E. I chose Athleticisme (like track and field stuff I think), Handball, and Badminton. So it should be pretty fun, I could have taken basically Dance Volleyball Fitness, but I realized I need my friends to make that at all exciting. I went to the Café with my “friends” who didn’t really talk to me or actually acknowledge my presence in any way. So I left school feeling kind of down, but it was great to go to the country home for the weekend.

I slept and read a lot, so it was very relaxing to be in Normandy. We went to another one of those Flea Market things, although this one was freaking massive and more commercialized I felt. I was proud of myself though, because I saw a Haribo candy stand with a whole bunch of good looking candy (kind of like a mini Bulk Barn) and I walked by a couple that were like 2+ Euros per 100 grams while stifling my urge to buy candy. Then I found one for 1 Euro per 100 grams, and I indulged in the sweet goodness of candy. Oh, what presents patience brings. I had a lot of personal reflection time over the weekend, and I decided that it really didn’t matter what my “friends” did in regards to me. It was I who had to make the effort and branch out to people that I could actually have a conversation with, and who I could work on my French with. So I left feeling pretty content with life…there was a beautiful sunset and I listened to Newcomer’s Home while driving at dusk (which is my favorite) through pretty Norman towns.

Today at school was much, much better. I just told myself that I was going to be in a good mood and try to talk to as many people as I could. I could definitely feel the difference in my attitude from Thursday or Friday…it made it a lot easier to concentrate in class and school wasn’t as boring. I took a hint from Kyle and made the effort whenever I could to speak about whatever I could, while trying not to hate the fact that I sounded stupid or couldn’t pronounce some words. It worked out very well, and I spoke today in French more than I have probably since I’ve been here. It was also good thing this weekend because I realized this year needs to be more about me learning French, and that God’s laying little things down that I need to pick up, so I’m trying to find little lessons throughout the day that God’s trying to teach me. So right now, I’m pretty content, and doing a lot better than Friday, which I think was just the day that I realized this isn’t a vacation any more, and that I need to make the most of the time I have here. Love you all.

Brent

2006-09-08T21:36:00.000+01:00

Blah.

Today was not one of my best days of being alive. I guess 4 hours of Science and 2 hours of Math can help do that to a person. I pretty much wanted to kill myself in all my classes, I played a lot of calculator games, and read Harry Potter in Math. I kind of had to pay attention in Biology because we were working in partners, physics I paid attention probably half the time, and math not at all because we are doing stuff I’ve already learned so I can’t really bring myself to focus.

Although I am very happy to have friends, today I just felt kind of awkward and kind of like a burden. I just kind of stand there while they talk, and since I can’t follow everything they’re saying I can’t really jump in on the conversation. I also don’t really know what to say when I’m walking with one of my friends alone. I hate those kinds of situations anyways (like the “I kind of know you” stage where you don’t really know what to talk about), so you can imagine that it’s must worse in French. It’s just kind of awkward and I really long for good, old friends that I can have a real conversation with. “Awkward social situations build character” so maybe it’s good for me…anyways I’m trying not to worry too much about it, I’ve only been here 2 weeks, I have a solid 9.5 months to become fluent/jump in on conversations. But I did spend like 3 hours at the Café with my friends (didn’t really talk too much, but it’s good to listen, cause when my listening improves then I can speak more etc.) and I’m going to the country house this weekend, which should be very relaxing and reenergizing, as I am very tired. Although, school is not done for the week as I have 2 hours of P.E tomorrow. YAY!
Brent

2006-09-07T22:05:00.000+01:00

Another Day in the Neighborhood

2 weeks today. Kind of weird…feels a lot longer than that. That may be good, as I feel like I’ve already improved so much in French…or bad because I may find that I will miss home a lot more than expected. But I guess I’ll wait and see.

Today was an awfully long day at school. I commenced with an hour of Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish. I think this is one of the few times since I’ve been here that I’ve actually been excited to finally hear someone speak French. I don’t speak Spanish…so that could make for a long year. I’ll leave it at that.

Next I had English with my crazy teacher who tells everyone to speak up but who herself talks like she’s in church. I feel really awkward in the class because I feel like I have to do everything correct and speak perfectly, but at the same time I don’t know how much I should correct my teacher and tell her that, for example, “fighting hunger” is perfectly okay and no one says “fighting famine.”

On to biology, which was an immensely boring two hours, and then three hours of math. Three hours is an ungodly amount of math for one day…not to mention I have two more hours tomorrow. The first two hours I experienced the joy of spacing out completely, but the third hour we started doing derivatives; of which I took thousands last year in Calculus, so I was happy I understood something, but I still didn’t really pay attention.

Anyways, that’s my day.

Brent

2006-09-06T21:54:00.000+01:00

La Deuxieme Journée

7 AM…not the best time to get up in the morning, but that’s what time I was awoken this morning to get ready for school. I commenced the day with history…which is by far my favorite class. My professor is hilarious…and I can actually understand a good portion of what’s happening (I think probably because I’ve already studied the material). I actually attempted to say something aloud in class today, and the words came out of my mouth not unlike someone falling down a flight of stairs. I was proud of myself though…for actually speaking aloud in class (in French), but it’s annoying knowing what I want to say and having it come out with the sentence structure of a four year old.

I…hate…physics. English or French, doesn’t really matter, I just don’t like science in general (funny how I’m in the scientific track of my high school). Anyways, I understood about as much Physics as I did Math yesterday, so I kind of tried to copy what the girl was drawing off the board but then it basically turned into me coloring my schedule in for two hours.

Then philosophy, where we sat for two hours and picked apart a paragraph from some philosopher named Spinoza (that even the French students said was written awkwardly and hard to comprehend). I actually understood a lot, and tried, again with great valor but not so great of an outcome, to explain a point that was inside my head. Two hours is just way too long for a class to be, so by the end of the first hour I just kind of stop paying attention.

Today was a “half day” which meant getting out at 1 instead of 4ish. This fact is funny because last year I started school at 7:50, had an hour for lunch, and got out around 1:10, I guess that shows a great disparity between our schooling systems. I don’t think French students really get senioritis.

I went and hung out with my friends at Parc Monceau again today. We played cards, which was fun because I’m starting to get a hold of the Tarot game. Sidenote: if you want to impress Europeans, learn how to shuffle and bridge a deck, they really have no idea how you do it and it also provides entertainment in watching them attempt to shuffle the cards. Anyways, that was very relaxing then I came home and ate more than I have in my entire life. That is all.

Brent

2006-09-05T20:35:00.000+01:00

First (Real) Day of School

This morning I woke up at 7 (earliest in a while) and hopped on the bus at around 7:30 to go to school. I was supposed to have 2 hours of Philosophy, but the first “hour” consisted of three guys speaking to a class of about 150 (for all of you to whom I showed pictures of my school, it was in the intense classroom with the really straight rows and books and little black board) for about 20 minutes. We then hung out in the outdoor commons-type area till our actual philosophy class started. My professor is really nice, she basically told me all I have to do is sit and listen and maybe take some notes. I am going to try to do as much as I can, but right now there is only so much I can do with my knowledge of French.

Then I went to English class, which I was really excited for because I was going to be able to understand EVERYTHING. Turns out the teachers kind of a jerk face…like we all introduced ourselves (I started…weird how much more outgoing I am when I know the language…sometimes I feel like a different person when I’m only speaking French) and she pretty much interrogated everyone for more information (except for me). She also doesn’t get the fact that teenagers giggle about stuff that isn’t that funny to older people, and she asks us why we are giggling because there’s “nothing to giggle about.” Then the class pretty much turned into her asking them what they thought about a picture of a protest in our book, and after each response she would kind of give me this look and ask me what I thought. Kind of annoying…I mean I know I’m the only fluent speaker in the class but that doesn’t mean I’m an expert on every subject that we could talk about (even speaking English is weird because I don’t do it very often).

I then proceeded to my History and Geography class, which should be very interesting because I have a really funny professor…and I love history. We start from 1945, so it was interesting to hear how World War II (or it’s aftermath) is taught in Europe as opposed to in America. From what I could understand it seems like my professor is very intelligent and not a pinko-commie-socialist as you might expect a French social studies teacher to be. The only problem is the fact that the class is 2 hours long, so I took a 20 minute respite in the middle of class and read my English book, which was nice because I didn’t have to strain my brain to understand everything.

Next I found out what eating “a la cantine” was like in France. The cantine is their food court thingy and it brought me back to the years of hot lunch in elementary school…with really mediocre tasting food. All I wanted was to hop in my car with my friends (or actually someone else’s, because we all know gas is expensive) and go to Chipotle…but that is a false hope that will not happen for the next year. I’m so glad I know people though, it makes it so much easier. I sat with my friends (from yesterday) at lunch, as well as some other guys I met that are in my class. The French system is working out great for me (taking the same classes with the same people) because the kids in my class are extremely nice and accepting. I met a lot of new people today, and everyone is really, really great (and patient with my French).

The class I dreaded most was last. Math. I thought maybe I would understand more in this class because you know like numbers are universal…no. I understood barely anything. Names of numbers, like integers, prime, even etc. are different and my little pocket dictionary helps me not with figuring these out. There is a word we used like the whole class and I still don’t know exactly what it is. I started taking notes but decided it was a wasted effort so I stopped, and kind of fell asleep for a second. My teacher came up and asked me why I wasn’t taking notes/if I was taking the bac (their big college placement exam) at the end of the year. I told her no, and I got the response of “oh, okay,” although I did try after that (still, no comprehension).

After school I went to the café with my friends (it seriously is such a relief, and feels so great to say that I have friends). I declined the 4 dollar coke and instead got a class of water, and we played a card game called Tarot (no, not tarot cards, we weren’t divining our futures or anything like that) which was very hard because first of all the cards and names of suits are different, and the explanations I got I could understand a little of (it’s like learning Hearts in a foreign language). I discovered it was a little bit like Hearts with teams…but I still don’t really understand it. One amazing (or so I think) thing happened there though; they played the Sufjan Stevens Come on Feel the Illinoise! CD at the café so I had some familiar music to listen to in a unfamiliar place. How crazy is that…an artist not even really well known in America (for those of you who don’t know, he’s the one making a CD for each state) being played in a Café in Paris. Crazyness. Sorry this is more than you really needed to know. I’m really tired. Foreign school is very tiring to every aspect of your being. Goodnight.

Brent

2006-09-04T20:53:00.000+01:00

First Day of School

Today was my first day of French public education. I took the bus with my host mom, found out what class I was in, and then my host mom left and I went to class. In French school you have a main class with a “professeur principale” that you take most of your required classes with that correspond with your area of study. I am in the Scientific track, so I will take all but one of my science classes with the people in my class. Comprende? I kind of just sat down randomly near the back of the class. The teacher (I don’t think she seems very nice) started talking and the girl next to me asked me a question…I said I was American so then she asked some questions and I met her two friends who were sitting right behind us. They are sooo nice... but I’ll get to that in a minute. I went with them to get our books, of which I have 9! On top of having 9 books and a semi-ridiculous schedule compared to my senior year in America…I have to go to school on SATURDAY for P.E. What a joke. But I can tell you tomorrow how real school goes. In class we basically checked out our books and got a lot of paperwork to take home. My new found friends invited me to a Café with them and their friends (“YES!” I said in my head) and there we went.

The girls are extremely nice and welcomed me into their group seemingly without problem. They do talk extremely fast (but stop to explain things) and smoke a lot…but hey what French teenagers don’t? We spent an hour or two at the Café talking (or well I guess they were talking…I was mostly listening) and I had a 33 centiliter coke (like 11.5 oz) for over 3 Euros! Freaking Paris….so expensive. I met the rest of their group of friends (I guess there are 8 in all, 6 girls and 2 guys) when they came because not all of them go to the same school. After we were done at the Café we went to Parc Monceau (a very pretty park near the school) for a long time. There we laid in the grass and I listened some more, although there was a really nice exchange student from Spain there that I spoke to a lot in French (he speaks French very well, but he is only in France for 3 weeks). It was great to have people to hang out with…especially on my first day of school! I am so completely happy and thankful that I already met and befriended such extremely nice people. It makes me so much more excited for this year to come.

Brent

2006-09-03T15:39:00.000+01:00

Weekend D’Acceuil

This weekend was my Rotary Districts welcome weekend for all the inbound exchange students this year. We drove out Friday north of Paris to this big Villa where we hung out and slept in tents in the front yard. The “villa” is this massive house in the middle of a walled-off forest where no one lives at the moment. There are two more houses in the walls, but this house was freaking huge…see picture below. Anyways, all the students were really nice and fun to be with. There are 7 from the U.S, 2 from Brazil, one from Canada (sorry Aunt Ruth, not from the Soo), one from Taiwan, and one from Germany. My nickname for the weekend was “Colorado” which was especially funny when the German would say it… “col-o-ray-do.” There were only two guys (me and a kid from Brazil) so we got a huge tent to ourselves whereas the girls got to sleep five to a tent. Chalk one up to being a guy.

Basically the weekend consisted of talking, eating and sleeping. When we arrived we just hung out, ate, had a fire, and went to bed pretty late. On Saturday we got up, ate, then went to this place called Aventureland. It is basically a really big ropes course/little theme park in Normandy. It was really fun, as me and the Brazilian guy (Leo) just went around and climbed trees like monkeys and descended them like Batman. We then went to this little meeting where we talked about the rules of our exchange (which is now the 50th time I’ve heard the rules since I applied), then went back to the villa and hung out and ate. I sat with some French kids (like 14 and 15 years old) at dinner and we talked a lot about soccer and sports. Then we played some soccer games outside (like monkey in the middle) and I learned a lot of cool soccer jargon and information about French teams and European soccer in general. They told me France is playing Italy on Wednesday in Paris for a qualifying match for the Eurocup, which should make Paris pretty crazy on Wednesday, as this is a pretty massive rivalry now after what happened in the World Cup. I plan on watching. It was fun to speak French with them…they are really nice kids. But then I just stayed up talking to all the other exchange students then went to bed.

I slept really well last night because this girl gave me a thermarest/sleeping bag/pillow (none of which I had the first night) because she was sleeping at home. I woke up in the middle of the night with half my body outside the tent, so that was kind of random and weird, especially since I got a lot colder when I pulled back inside and had to put a blanket on over me. There was a big pot-luck for all the host families this morning, so my host family came and I got to meet French exchange students who went out last year as well as my exchange student friends host brothers/sisters. I was excited because when I’d speak French the French people would tell me “tu parles bien français” (you speak French well) so that was a boost in confidence. I swear I had probably the equivalent of 5 baguettes and a 24 pack of Coca-Cola this weekend. It’s basically all I ate/drank…including this morning. Anyways, that was my weekend in a nutshell. It was really fun but now I’m very tired and I start school tomorrow (which should be Labor Day so that kind of sucks). But I only have to go for an hour or two with my host mom, and we’ll talk to my counselor and get my classes etc. I’m actually really excited to start and meet some people my age that I’ll be able to hang out with on a regular basis.

Signing off,
Colorado (Brent)

2006-08-31T19:18:00.000+01:00

Modern Art

Today I visited the Centre Pompidou. It is maybe the most out of place building I’ve ever seen. It’s this big square building in the middle of Paris with all the plumbing etc on the outside. The fact that it is painted in really bright colors and is right across the street from an old church doesn’t really help it fit in either. There is a big paved section in front of it, where people lay down and sun tan like they’re at the beach (I guess it’s the closest thing in Paris), street performers perform, and strangely enough, WIFI is set up, so everyone sits with their computers…kind of funny. Anyways, I walked around for a really long time inside. There are lots of really cool (but very artsy) exhibit things, like videos, paintings, art set up in rooms, all with ridiculous explanations that try to connect them to Film…like “this painting juxtaposes the light and darkness, therefore portraying an important part of Film, the light coming through the black/white on the film, creating…” I think you get the picture. I really enjoy modern art (I like it a lot more than I like looking at sculptures for 2 hours), so it was fun to meander around to the different rooms filled with craziness (and crazier descriptions of the craziness)

I soon got tired from walking and looking, so I left and walked around Les Halles. It is the area around the Centre Pompidou, where there are a lot of clothing stores, cafés, and other random stores. It is pretty touristy, but it was kind of similar to the 16th street mall in Denver…a little bit. Anyways, I’m not going to keep rambling and pretend like I did a lot today. Most days I go to bed around 12 and wake up around 12…I don’t know what it is but I sleep here better than I do anywhere else. Maybe it’s the fact my bed is really comfortable and the room gets very dark at night, or maybe it’s just because I walk so freaking far everyday on my sight seeing journeys. Well, sorry this wasn’t the most exciting post ever. But tomorrow I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m leaving at about 4:30 to go my Rotary districts welcome weekend with 12 inbound exchange students and 5 ex-exchange students from France. I’m excited, except for the fact that they said I need to bring a sleeping bag because we're sleeping in tents and I don’t have one/didn’t want to buy it…so I’m just going to rough it Tom McChesney style…hey, maybe I’ll just make a sauna out of my tent. Anyways, I might post tomorrow, but not over the weekend, love you all

Actually, I did remember something interesting. Today my host mom brought me up with my suitcase to their storage room in the top/back of the apartment complex. I guess it's where the maids used to live back when the people here used maids. But you walk up this ridiculously small, poorly lit staircase that starts in the back of the kitchen for like 10 floors and then there are a bunch of little rooms...for storage etc. But my family owns like three rooms (you buy them i think) and two are theirs for storage, and then another one is like a little extra room for when their third son comes home to visit. Anyways, it was weird to see this extra, historical part of my apartment complex. that is really all. love you. ill update you on how my weekend went monday (school starts monday as well !!)

Brent

P.S. Love your comments, keep ‘em coming
P.P.S. If what you read is boring…tell me and I’ll invent fun stories to make you laugh

2006-08-30T17:47:00.000+01:00

Le Soleil Brille (The Sun Shines)

So today was pretty much amazing. I got up and went to Montmartre and Sacré Coeur (Sacred Heart). Montmartre is a big hill on the edge of Paris where all the existentialists used to hang out and the movie Amélie was filmed. It is also the red light district of Paris, as I found out by accidentally getting off at the wrong Metro stop. My plan was to go to the Café Les 2 Moulins where Amélie takes place and eat there, so I had to backtrack to the street it was on. That meant walking past 15,000 sex stores, which was kind of awkward. Good thing it wasn’t nighttime! Anyways, after that I got to the Café, but I didn’t really feel like paying 7+ Euros for lunch, so I walked across the street and bought an amazing sandwich/drink for 5 Euros…that’s basically like stealing in Paris. From there I walked up the hill to Sacré Coeur. Sidenote: Montmartre reminded me a lot of Seattle, with really steep streets etc. Just thought I’d share that…and I’m sure Kyle seconds my opinion. Anyways, the sun was shining to it was a great day to see one of the most beautiful buildings ever…

Sacré Coeur is a white, massive, Byzantine styled basilica that was built during the 19th and 20th centuries (over 44 years). It is very beautiful, and I kind of felt like I was in Rome when I was there. I went inside and walked around, then sat in one of the little rooms on the side and prayed and read for a while. It was very relaxing; basically the exact opposite of outside with all the crowds etc. I loved just sitting there…it was just so peaceful. Anyways, I went outside and took some more pictures, and then got pooped on by a bird. Yes, a bird pooped on me. It has never happened before, and I didn’t really think it would, but it did. There was a big, round pile of green poop (as seen to the left) on my shoulder. Now I didn’t really want to walk around Paris with poop on my, so I picked up a dirty napkin off the street and tried to wipe it off, but it just made it worse (as seen to the left). Then I had to go find a bathroom and wipe it off. After that, I went and laid in the grass in front of the basilica and read Harry Potter (en Français) for a while. I got a little tired of reading and had time left, so I hopped on the Metro and went to see a movie. It was called “La Science des Rêves” and it was very good and randomly funny in some parts. It was weird because it was a French movie, but the main character didn’t really speak French, so it was mostly in English. Anyways, that’s just a random bit of information that you probably didn’t want or need to know, but if you like artsy films and can speak French (or don’t mind only knowing what’s going on 85% of the time), then I’d recommend it…but it’s probably not in American theaters. I’m rambling. Goodbye.

Brent

2006-08-29T19:38:00.000+01:00

It’s Rainy and My Feet Hurt

So it rained again today…but I don’t really mind it that much. Although it does annoy me when I try to take pictures of things above me, and I get rain drops on my lens then there are spots on my pictures for the next ten minutes. It also annoys me because when I walk my feet get soaked and so I walk around in wet shoes/socks the whole day…which isn’t the best thing in light of how much I’ve been walking lately.

Today I went to the Musée d’Orsay and Notre Dame. I stood in line, outside, in the rain, for a long time at the Musée d’Orsay…so that kind of sucked. Inside, I saw some different expositions; one about photographic representations of works of art, then the impressionist wing (which is freaking massive, by the way), and then I saw paintings by a guy I really like, a Danish painter by the name of Willumsen. Museum touring gets a little tiring (and a little boring) after a while, so I decided to leave and walk to the Ile de la Cité and see Notre Dame.

Notre Dame is one of the prettiest man made things I’ve ever seen. I just kind of stood there (in the rain) and marveled at it’s beauty and history. It’s so weird to think about all the events that have taken place there…like coronations of kings and masses etc etc. It’s funny because “Old Town” in Fort Collins is maybe 100 years old, and Notre Dame was built in 1163…so kind of a large disparity in definitions of “Old” there. Well, after standing there for a while I went inside and looked around…then sat down to kind of just look and pray for a little bit. Then some person rang a bell a couple times and then everyone stood up so I stood up…and then I gathered that it was mass. I stayed for a while watching the mass. There was beautiful singing in French so I followed along in the little handout this guy gave me. Then I got a little restless so I walked around the rest of the inside. When I left…it was SUNNY!!! So that made me happy because I could take more pictures.

On the Métro home, I bought an Orangina because I was thirsty. Can I just take a minute to tell you how much I love Orangina? If you have ever been to my house, you probably know I can drink a whole carton of Orange Juice in one sitting. You also probably know that I love pop…so the fact that there’s a drink that is basically carbonated Orange Juice goodness makes me ecstatic beyond belief. That is all.

Brent

P.S if you want to see more pictures...go to this link to see them http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2000100&l=1086a&id=1076310089

2006-08-28T22:15:00.000+01:00

I’m Just Really Excited to Be Here

So last night Me, Louis, and his friend Akira went down by the Seine to a little carnival thingy they have set up with games and a Ferris wheel. They got some Churros with Nutella, which is very good by the way. We walked to the Louvre and looked at it and took some pictures, then we met Louis’ friend Fanny (who came to the movie the first night with us) and her boyfriend Maxisdfds (or at least that’s what I think it is…I didn’t really catch it) and walked around for a while. We went to Haagen-Daaz and had really good ice cream. It is fun but kind of annoying to listen to them talk to each other. Like at dinner with my host family I could understand most everything they were saying, but they speak so fast together so sometimes my mind just drifts off to other things and I don’t really listen. But Fanny and Maxisdfd started talking about Talladega Nights (the movie with Will Ferrell) so it was funny (and difficult) to talk to them about that. We talked about the French F1 driver (for those who have seen the movie) so it was funny to hear what they thought about an American portrayal of a stereotypical French person. I laughed.

Today I went out to explore Paris. I was just basically excited to be alive this morning; I put in my headphones and listened to “All Of Your Love” by Hellogoodbye and just smiled to myself…Anyways I went to some ridiculously expensive department stores and looked and the ridiculously gaudy clothes and then to the Louvre and acted like a tourist. I saw the Mona Lisa (not really all it’s cracked up to be) and sculptures and paintings beyond number. So that was fun for a while but then I decided to move elsewhere. I went outside and saw the Arc de Triomphe and I was like “oh that doesn’t look too far…I think I’ll walk.” So I walked…and walked…and walked. But it was pretty; right along the Champs-Elysées. I went into Louis Vuitton and saw some nice handbags. Bought like 4 or 5 just to take them home to see if they go with my outfits…but shoot, now that I think about it I don’t think even all my allowance from Rotary for the year will cover it…shoot. Then I went on the Arc de Triomphe and looked around Paris…as well as took a lot of pictures. It’s so pretty, all the tree lined streets and monuments and apartments. It’s so different from any other city because the only really tall building are in La Défense outside the city, so the view isn’t ruined at all. I then walked…and walked…and walked to the Métro station and came home. I’m tired and my legs hurt. But tomorrow I’m probably going to Notre Dame and the Musée D’Orsay because I start school next Monday so I have all week to EXPLORE!!!!!

Brent

2006-08-27T18:44:00.000+01:00

Normandy

Where do I start…well where I left off I was going to a movie with Louis. It was fun, we walked there and had a good conversation in French. I am gaining more confidence in my French (except when my host mom gets mad at me for asking “comment?” 5 times when she is asking if I have any clothes to wash…like 5 minutes ago). There was only one other girl who came with us, and after she came Louis (who is 16) and her just talked and I listened. We saw Miami Vice, which is a terrible movie, don’t see it. Anyways, that wasn’t very exciting…onto my trip.

We left about 3 or 4 o’clock on Friday for the country house in Normandy. It is about an hour or so north of Paris, west of Rouen. The Norman countryside is beautiful, with green forests, large fields, and plenty of cows. We stopped for a bit in a beautiful little town called Lyons La Forêt, which is 7 kilometers from the country home. We walked around for a bit and I took a lot of pictures (all told, 290 over the weekend). We then went to a supermarket and bought food for the weekend. Their supermarkets are definitely different than ours. You have to pay to get a cart, it is a lot smaller, and they don’t give you bags for your groceries. So that was a fun little excursion, but then we went to the country home, which is in Saint Honorine (you don’t really need to remember that, it’s very small). It was somewhat small, but what did I expect, a villa? There was a nice garden in the back where we ate twice, but there were also some annoying neighbors who made a lot of ruckus at about 12 at night while their friend were leaving (and I was starting my 3 or 4 hours of being awake because of ridiculous jet lag). Anyways, we ate that night outside so this is a good time to explain our typical meal.

We start with something small, like pâté (which is somewhat like meatloaf), then move on to the main course (usually meat, like veal or salmon). We then have cheese with bread, and then end with a desserty thing (say, melon or pineapple). After dessert there is coffee. I think my family is in love with that cider I was talking about, because we’ve had it with every single meal, not that I’m complaining as those of you who have spent a holiday with me know I could drink 3-4 bottles of sparkling cider. We also had some mineral water this weekend with dinner (which, although before I drink it I tell myself “I like mineral water,” I still do not like).

Anyways, so the first night I got probably 5 hours of sleep, and was awoken at 9 to go to Alizay (a small town about 15 minutes away) for their weekly town-wide garage sale ( I think that’s the best way to describe it). Basically people set up tables full of crap they’ve had for 20 odd years and try to sell it. There are old tractor parts, windbreaker suits, VHS tapes of mediocre movies, and really old books. It felt straight out of the 80s, and it didn’t help that on every streetlight there were speakers that played ridiculous American 80s music. So I walked around (laughing) for a while by myself, as my host parents told me to be back at 11:45, although I thought it was 12:45. So after about an hour of walking, I decided to get some food (first mistake). I got a sandwich with ham and a Orangina, but little did I know we’d be eating in the next 45 minutes anyways. Then I went down another street in the town and took pictures of the ridiculously cute Norman half-timbered houses (second mistake). I came back at about 12:10, and my host parents had been looking for me for about 20 minutes. My host mom was angry because she had reserved a restaurant in Rouen, and she didn’t know if they’d keep it. I decided to keep the fact that I’d already eaten to myself and let her only be mad at me being late and making them worried. Oopsie!

So off to Rouen! Old Rouen is beautiful, with half timbered apartments sitting above gaudy stores overlooking stone pavement. We went to a little restaurant and I stuffed myself to the rafters with Crêpes (remember, I had already eaten) and washed it down with guess what…Cider! We then walked through the beautiful streets in the rain. We tried to go in the Cathedral which is a monument to Joan of Arc, but there was a wedding…so we couldn’t. I did get to go in the Cathédral Notre Dame de Rouen, which is an archetype of Gothic architecture, with thousands of spires and big arched doorways. The inside is very somber and gray. I guess it was bombed out during the Second World War and the roof collapsed during a big storm in 2000. It’s so weird that has been so affected by war. In America we are so isolated from it, I mean we have Pearl Harbor and 9/11 and that’s basically it in the last 100 years. But Europe has seen so much. There are no towns or cities that weren’t touched. Every little town we drove through has a monument to those lost in the First and Second World Wars, and my host mom tells me that every city in France has one. Crazy…

By the end of the day in Rouen, I wanted to keel over and die. I was so tired that while my host parents were looking in an antique store I sat outside on a chair and fell in and out of sleep. We then had to walk back to the car and I fell asleep on the way back to the house. Then at the house I was watching TV upstairs and fell asleep. I woke up for dinner, then fell asleep about an hour after. This much sleep does not help one to sleep through the night. So again last night I got up around 12ish (I didn’t have a clock so that’s kind of a guess) and didn’t get to sleep till probably around 3. I am feeling better today, which is partially due to the fact that I got to sleep till 1 o’clock.

Overall, it was a good weekend. It is so weird finally being here and going to little towns that I could only dream about and seeing cathedrals I’d only seen in pictures. I am now in the “French only” part of my exchange. This weekend my host mom would speak mostly in English, which was kind of annoying because most of what she said I felt like I could understand in French. It was much better to talk to my host dad, because he speaks only a little English anyways so he speaks only French with me. So at lunch I asked my host mom to speak in French, so she said she would, although she has forgotten a few times so far (like when I couldn’t understand that she wanted clothes to wash she finally gave up and said it in English). It is good, but much harder when difficult things aren’t explained to me in English. I just kind of nod and say words in an inquisitive tone when I don’t understand. Not being able to express myself fully is going to be a good experience for me. I’ve realized that most of the time that I think I have something to say, in fact it’s just that I feel like I need to say something. Anyways, sorry this is really long, but this is as much for me as it is for you. I don’t think I said everything I wanted to, but I’m too tired to read back through it. I love you all.

Tchus!
Brent

2006-08-25T13:12:00.000+01:00

Country Home
I'm going with my host parents to their country home in Normandy. It is outside Rouen in a place called Lyons La Foret. I'm very excited to go and see the French countryside...I'VE HAD IT WITH THIS CITY!!

Just Kidding, it's only been a day...and I actually adore Paris. But we are staying the night, so I can tell you about it/show you pictures when I get back. This picture is of my apartment. It is beautiful and old.

A Bientot,

Brent

2006-08-25T01:00:00.000+01:00

Hello Friends! I am maybe the most excited person in the world right now. Paris is amazing. My host parents and brother are some of the nicest people I've ever met. I have my own room in an amazing apartment. I just can't explain how blessed I am to be here. It is everything I hoped and dreamed for. It is all that I could ask for an more. On the plane with the Rotary Students, people would ask me where I was going and I would say Paris, and the response was always the same..."Lucky." I think that's an understatement. Anyways, let me recount my journey.

So last night I went to bed at 2:00 and got up at 4:30 to leave for DIA. The flight from DIA to Washington wasn't too bad, I slept for about 45 minutes. So we got to Washington a little early and there were about 50 Rotary students waiting for the same flight. It was great to meet everyone and find out where they were from and where they were going. There were so many though, I'm pretty sure I remember about half. So waiting sucked because I was basically in constant anticipation of leaving. But it didn't really hit me that I was leaving for 10 months. I don't think it has yet. It feels like an amazing vacation...but I'm sure that will change in the near future. Anyways, the flight from Washington to Paris was long, but not boring. I sat next to some really funny people that I got to know pretty well. We listened to music and talked about weird things we do and it was just fun to have people that I could talk to un-awkwardly. I listened to a lot of music, slept for a little bit, ate food, talked to some French students who were coming back from California.

When we finally arrived it was somewhat surreal. I have never been to Europe before, so it was weird stepping off the plane and being in the Charles De Gaulle airport, which is ridiculous by the way, and not ridiculous like Gaudy or nice, like ridiculously awkward with small baggage claims and weird underground tunnel things. I definitely prefer DIA. But it was fine, my bags came and nothing was lost, and I didn't even really go through customs, at least not like when I go to Canada and come back to the US and I get grilled by some guy about what I was doing. My host parents, Laurent and Marie-Aimee were there to pick me up.

We drove off in their Citroen into Paris, along with 17,000 other crazy drivers. I'm glad Rotary doesn't let you drive, because I would probably get killed trying to shift lanes or parallel park in some of the amazingly tiny spots on the Paris streets. My host parents are amazingly nice and patient with my French. My host mom speaks fluent English, so she helps out a little when she thinks I won't get an explanation in French or when I ask how to say something. She said she's only going to do this for the first week, then it will be all in French, which I am very excited for because I think too much English will hold back my French. It's not as hard as I thought it would be to communicate in French. I can say basically what I want to say, although I need to think before hand what I am saying and in what tense. I've already learned some new phrases, like slang for "it's hard" is "c'est galere." Listening is a little harder, although Marie-Aimee speaks somewhat more slowly with me than with her Husband or Louis, my host brother. I don't even need to know what they're saying to know they aren't talking to me, because she kind of just goes off and I can only catch some of it. I've smiled and said "Ah...Oui" probably 100 times when I somewhat understand what someone is saying. Although I think this will help with my communication skills in general, because I'm forced to listen completely to what the other person is saying before I think about what I want to say, because if I start thinking about a response I miss most of what they say. Unlike in English where usually when I have a conversation and most of the time I spend "Listening" is used to formulate a response or think about what I want to ask next.

So anyways, I had a small breakfast when I first got in the apartment with some orange juice and a croissant. I then took a shower, as I had been sweating for probably the preceding 20 hours. I took a very good, but short nap. (My comforter is very comfortable, in case you were wondering). Then we had lunch with a salad of tomatoes and some other stuff, along with bread and melon (which you eat with a spoon). I drank some Cider from Normandy which was very good, but quite different because of the small bite the alcohol brings to it. (Don't worry Mom and Dad, it's only 2%). Then we went out to explore the city, which is freaking unbelievable and beautiful. We drove past my school and went to a couple department stores, including one where I took that picture of the Tour Eiffel. It is called Printemps, and there is a large rooftop with a gorgeous panoramic view of Paris. So it was fun to walk around and have my host family explain sites to me and tell me about what was happening in the city. Then Louis and I took the Metro back to the apartment (immeuble) where I am now. The Metro is basically the exact opposite of anything that I could do in Fort Collins transportation wise. Actually, basically everything here is the exact opposite of Fort Collins. It is so weird to finally be here, but I love it beyond belief, and I'm so excited about this year. I am going to see Miami Vice with Louis tonight so that should be fun to meet his friends and see how they interact. Anyways, I should stop writing because you probably stopped reading a while ago. But keep me in your prayers!

Amazed and Excited,

Brent

2006-08-21T02:59:00.000+01:00

Well hello everyone, this is my blog which I will be using to update everyone while I'm in France. I will send out some mass emails, but those get kind of annoying so check this site as often as you care to discover what I'm up to. I should update it pretty regularly (most days) but I'm not promising anything, as I can get pretty lazy. Anyways, I leave on Wednesday the 23rd at 8:30 from DIA and I'm extremely excited, although pretty nervous as well because I have a lot of stuff to get done before I leave, and I tend to have a knack for procrastination so we'll see how it works out.

put this in your favorites so you don't forget!

Brent