Another day at the office

Ok...after some tough fan mail last night I have decided to retract my last post but not all of it! I'm retracting the part where I said French women dress scary. Although quite a lot of them do (and I swear, if it wasn't rude to point a camera at some strangely dressed stranger I'd do it just to show you), not all French women dress like homeless people. Yeah...even that's kinda harsh...HOMELESS PEOPLE WOULDN'T EVEN DRESS LIKE THAT! :)

On to today...

I actually did absolutely nothing work related at the office today. I'm basically being paid to sit there and do my homework. I'm not complaining, I just wish that I could help more. I can't understand the phone because I don't know what's going on, I can't help anyone with their work because it has lots of legal jargon and laws that I don't know, and my uncle isn't here to give me busy work. :) My aunt told me that I should just stay an hour or so and then leave. I think tomorrow that's what I'm going to do.

A few weeks ago my uncle gave me that task of creating templates in OpenOffice because he thinks Microsoft is out to rule the world and is spying on him so he wants to get rid of it (and the fact that the computers have Word 97). He asked me to make a template for Excel that I cannot do. I've searched and searched all over Google for even a snippet of information and there is none. Not that it matters anyway because the people who don't have OO on their computers can't run the documents anyway, even though I saved them as Word docs and OO is supposed to be compatible with all of the other word processors. Hmmm...

French dressing

I have yet to figure out why French women have the reputation as being some of the best dressed women in the world. I look at a lot of women I see on the metro and street and think they a) are color blind, b) have no mirror in their house, c) are reading the Vogues and Glamours from about 3 years ago or d) all of the above. I would take pictures of them but that would be incredibly rude. Maybe when I finally get my cell phone I'll pretend I'm answering a phone call and take pictures.

Yesterday I saw some woman who was wearing a black suit jacket, navy blue pin striped pants, a red shirt and red high heeled sneakers. Not just any high heeled sneakers...stilleto high heeled sneakers. It was one of the most hideous outfits I have ever seen.

This is also why I haven't really bought any clothes. I go into stores and I find tapered pants, prairie skirts, and weird looking shrugs. And sad to say, I've seen women wearing all 3 of these things at once. Aside from the prairie and tiered skirts, the big thing here is to wear dresses with pants. I must be very avant garde because I used to do that when I was 5! And then either stilletos or sneakers with the ensemble. It really makes me sad.

The couture and designer crap is like this too...it actually is crap. I went into a store yesterday that sold desinger clothes and I can honestly say that a brand whore would buy this stuff. I saw a D&G shirt that was so hideous it looked like someone got mad at it for being so ugly and shredded it with a pair of scissors. Horrid. And it was $300!

The makeup is not much better. When I was walking out of the metro this afternoon I saw some woman whose hair was actually fro'ed out (she was white) and her eyeliner was extended about 3 inches beyond her eyelids. And she was about 50! So scary. I actually think she also used the black eyeliner to line her lips before she put on her bordello-red lipstick.

Of course, not every women looks like this. Sadly, it just happens to be quite a lot of them.

I should have lost about 10 pounds....

Yesterday I had another day off (I like it when the boss is in another country) so I made a whole list of things to do.

First I started with the Musee Grevin. It is a wax museum started in the 1900's. I swear, I must have watched too many Vincent Price movies when I was younger...I kept waiting for the wax people to come to life, grab me and make me into a wax statute (but not in some stupid way like that dumb-ass remake. *cough*ParisHilton*cough* Some of the people were cool but most of them were French celebrities that I had never even heard of. There was also a wax person of Dubya but it looked absolutely nothing like him...maybe they were looking at the wrong picture... Seeing the wax statutes of the King's was very cool. They were very cool. They even had the Merovingian kings, mom.

After the museum I took the metro over to Notre Dame where I wanted to take the tour of the towers. Colin and I have always wanted to do it but the lines are either too long or my mom doesn't want to wait for us. :) Anyway, as I was by myself I decided hell with it, I'm going to do it. And, because I'm under 26 I got in at a reduced price! So, the climb is not that high but it is hard because it is the old stone, spiral staircases. I hate those things. I'm always afraid that I'm going to fall. Actually, while I was in Chamrousse I slipped on a staircase like that and the only reason I don't go rolling down the staircase was because I fell into the wall. Go figure, huh? Anyway, the climb was hard as I am very out of shape but it was well worth it when I got to the top.





Personally, I love the gargoyles. Each one is different and they each have their own personalities. My favorite ones were the one that was bored and the one that was eating the bird.




After I took these pictures I walked up another spiral staircase to go to the very top of the towers and see a panoramic view of the city. The view was nice but the staircase was not. The staircases are very tiny, as they are very old, and instead of having one staircase for climbing the tower and one for descending the tower, the same staircase was used for both. Going up and down the staircase was very scary because whenever you passed someone you had to hug the middle part of the stairs or else risk slipping and rolling down. Not a pleasant experience. I've done it once and I don't think I would ever go to the top part of the tower again.

After leaving Notre Dame I went over to St. Sulpice. If any of you have read "The DaVinci Code" you will recognize that church as the one having the "meridian line" that lined up with an old pagan temple. While the line is in the church, there is no a plaque-type thing in the church saying "unlike the statements in a recently released best-seller, there is no meridian line, there was no pagan temple on this spot, and the letters P and S in the windows do not stand for Priory of Scion - they stand for Peter and Sulpice." I thought that was funny. Maybe I'll go back and take a picture of it.

After St. Sulpice I was getting hungry so I went into a supermarket and bought my lunch and then I took it somewhere to eat. Want to know where I ate lunch yesterday?



Here! The Eiffel Tower is my favorite thing about Paris...so much so that the last time my family and I were here no one else wanted to even climb it. I had to settle to just walked up to it and see it. I can't believe I have been here for 3 weeks and this was the first time I've visited it! Anyway, after I ate my lunch on the grass next to the tower, I decided that I was going to walked up the stairs. I thought, ok, again Colin and I have always wanted to do that and I just ate a huge lunch, might as well work off the cheese. OMG...that is the first and the last time I do that. It was horrible! I can't believe I climbed about 600 feet on foot. At least it was a cold day so I wasn't dying.

When I finally got to the second story (after having first stopped at the fisrt floor to die a little bit) I started to get sea-sick. It was very windy and the tower was moving. I can't even imagine what the top floor must have been like. I am so glad that I didn't decide to go to the top...I probably would have thrown up. As it was I was looking for somewhere I could throw up without do it on the people below me. :) So, all in all, not a good experience climbing the Eiffel Tower. Colin, if you come visit me and we go to the Eiffel Tower, you can climb it and I'll take the elevator, ok?

The last thing I had planned for yesterday, to go to the Arch de Triomphe was put off until another day. I was so exhausted after all of me walking and climbing yesterday that all I wanted to do was go home. Actually, when I finally did make it home, I fell asleep while I was sitting on my bed. To say the least, I slept very well last night and I'm glad that I had this morning off so that I could sleep in!

IKEA en France

Today I had nothign planned so I decided to go with my aunt to IKEA. She was looking for a new shower curtain. However, we walked out of there with about 5 sheet/comforter sets, a quilt, 3 CD towers, and no shower curtain. :)

IKEA in France is basically the same as in the States except for a few differences. Their IKEA has a lot more armoires and cabinets because they don't have closets here. Also, their IKEA has a fabric department. I think that was the funniest thing I saw. Of course, I saw lots of things that I wanted to buy while I was there but had to refrain from buying by remembering that I'm only allowed 2 suitcases on the plane!

Another funny thing was seeing all of the people in the parking lot trying to shove the boxes into their tiny cars. The cars are so small that I'm sure most furniture from IKEA has ot be shipped directly to the person. Crazy.

The other thing that is completely different than in the states is that in France you have to buy your bags. In the US you just pick as many plastic bags as you want to carry your things in. In France, no. You actually have to pay to use paper bags to carry your things to the car. That would never fly in the States. Ans, as in all of the stores in France, you have to pay to rent the shopping carts. I think that is one of the funniest things ever. All of the carts are normally locked together and you have to put money into them to get them out! That also would not work in the States.

A Day Off!

Today was moving day (the offices are moving from outsides Paris to the middle of the city within spitting distance of the Opera Garnier...I know...what a shame!) so I got the day off. As it was Friday and most people are supposed to be at work, I decided to head out of the city and visit Versailles.

Versailles was the palace built outside of Paris by Louis XIV. It was a little way out but when I went to buy my ticket the man in the booth was really nice and told me that I could pay less than half the price of the metro if I took the commuter train and walked a few blocks. I'd never tried it but decided it could be interesting. At first I was confused because I had never seen the train station inside the metro so I walked around a bit (probably looking very lost) until I finally found it. A few more minutes were spent trying to figure out how to get past the "Do not enter" sign but I managed it. Hey, I haven't spent $80,000 on a graduate education for nothing!

The train was nice and I could actually see the country rather than the ugly dark walls of the metro tunnels. It was an adventure trying to find Versailles after I got off the train because it was not meant for tourists and there were no signs. But I just headed out to where there were lots of trees and eventually found my way.



This is the entrance to the palace. How intimidating would that be to have to walk or ride up all that way just to get to the actual palace? Incredible. You can't see it from the picture but there is gold and marble statutes EVERYWHERE! I tried to take pictures but they didn't turn out so well. Once inside I decided to take the audiotour (it'd been 10 years since I'd done it and I didn't remember anything). It was nice. If nothing else it filtered out some of the sounds of the screaming kids...it was school field trip day. I was surrounded by what must have been 30-40 7 year olds. *Shudder*

Walking through the king and queen's apartments was very cool. Seeing how opulent they were I can understand why they were eventually brought down by people who had nothing.







After Versailles Chateau I went into the garndens but it was too hot and too big to actually walk around. I took a few pictures and then I walked back to the train station.



I decided on my way back that I wanted to go visit the Grand Palais. It is one of the exhibition halls in Paris that just got a $124 million euro makeover to fix and restore the glass ceiling. Inside it is amazing. Normally, various exhibitions and fashion shows are held here. I want to go to one of those fashion shows!



Tomorrow I don't what I'll do. Perhaps I will try to go to the rue de Rivoli area again or maybe to the Monmarte area. I did buy stamps today but as there was a line behind me as I tried to figure out how to work the machine, it wouldn't take my credit card, and I didn't have enough change...I could only buy one booklet. So, I will be sending out the postcards in shipments. If you don't get one now I haven't forgotten about you!

It's been a whole 2 weeks since I've been here

I know...I'm not very good at this blog stuff. It's the same way with journals. I start one and then maybe I write in it every few months to a year. :)

Anyway... My weekend in Chamrousse was nice. It was so cold! It's only September...how can it be 2 degrees C?! But other than the freezing cold weather it was ok. I had lunch with the mayor and about half of the city counsel. Then I helped my uncle make his bid presentation to the mayor and city counsel. Of course, by help I mean change the powerpoint slides...

My uncle was very disappointed that there was so much fog we couldn't see the valley. He really, really, REALLY wanted me to see that for some reason. He even suggested that I come back for some weekend in November to see how pretty it would look covered in snow. Ummm....no. I don't like snow and if I thought it was cold this weekend it is going to be about 20 times worse in November. But at least now I can say I've been to Chamrousse. If I go back in a few years I can point out the projects that my uncle and his compacy were involved in and say that I helped. :)

My uncle's company also found a new office today. Want to see what I am going to see every morning when I come out of the metro?



This! The new office is about 3 blocks away from the Opera Garnier (and the Galleries Lafayette and Printemps, but we won't go into that yet). It is very nice. It is actually an old apartment that is now used for an office. My uncle is very excited that it is only 70 years old, too! It's also right across from the Etas-Unis Hotel (The United States Hotel) and I told him that was a sign. :) My aunt doesn't know yet. She thought we signed with the other office but 3 hours, 3 HOURS, before my uncle was going to sign the lease on his second choice office, the first choice office came through. I feel bad for Theirry, the IT guy, because he had all of the work planned out for the other office (as we are moving Friday) and now he has to start all over again. The bad thing about this being an old apartment is that it doesn't have all of the power, network and phone plugs that the other office had. Poor Theirry...he has 1 day to put everything up and make sure it works.

As the weather is so nice and I have Friday off because it is moving day, I think I am going to go visit Versailles. That should be nice and it is a weekday so I'm hoping there won't be a lot of people around there but I won't hold my breath. Then maybe on Saturday I'll spend the day in Paris again (hopefully it won't rain this time).

bon weekend

You're probably all wondering if I died or something but no, I have just been very busy at work. I'm at the office all day and then by the time I come home and eat dinner it is 9:30 or 10 o'clock and then it is homework time before bed. I didn't want to be working this much but that's how it is.

Today, as one of my 2 days off, I went into Paris. My intention was to go buy clothes at H&M and C&A but I didn't find anything that I really liked. So, I walked around instead.

I was walking and walking (I have no idea where or on what street) and I found a really nice, old church called St. Eunice. It was under construction so unfortunately I couldn't take a really good picture of the church but it was beautiful.





The plaques inside the church said that it was one of the ones that inspired Notre Dame. It was so beautiful and peaceful. It wasn't like Notre Dame that is constantly filled with people and you get shoved around. This one only had about 10 people in it. Probably because it was out of the way and no one knows about it.

After that I just walked around. I forget that I'm in Paris because I read very well, it's like reading in English. When people start talking to me and I have to answer them is when it kicks in. I understand what they are saying but I can't think and translate from english to french in my head fast enough to answer them very well. Oh well...it gets better every day.

After walking around for a bit I ate lunch in the gardens behind Notre Dame. I have never been in there before as when I come with my parents we are usually in such a hurry to see everything that we don't have time. It's very beautiful too...even when it's raining.



After a very good lunch. I walked along the Left Bank of the Seine where all of the book sellers and stuff are.



It was very cold at that point and looked like it was going to rain so I started heading back toward Notre Dame. I was thinking about catching the metro there and then going home but there were so many people that I had to push my way through the crowd just to get across the street. Incredible. So I started walking back to the rue de Rivoli and by all of the shops. The sun started to come out so I decided to just keep walking. I walked the whole of the street, past the shopping area, past the Louvre and the tourist shops and then I went in the Tuilleries. This was once the garden of the Palais de Louvre before the king moved out to Versailles. I haven't visited Versailles yet but I plan to.



Very beautiful garden. Not as beautiful as it once was but you can imagine what it would have looked like hundreds of years ago. Way off in the distance you can see the little arch built by Napoleon to symbolize himself and his conquests. It is right in line with the Arc de Triomphe, the Obelisk from Egypt, the Louvre, the Champs-Elysee and the Grand Arche in La Defense. It's very cool to see an aerial view but I couldn't find one on Google.



I walked all the way to the Arc de Triomphe and then decided that was enough. My poor little feet were so tired. I kinda wish I had a pedometer because I must have walked about 10 miles today! But, it was really nice to just go out and walk around. I discovered some things that I have never seen before. And I saw a street called Nicolas Flamel (for all the HP readers!)

Ok...time to go partake in some homework. A tout allure!

Le Palais de Justice

Today I was lucky enough to go inside the Palais de Justice. It is not really open to tourists because the courts are usually in use. It is located on the island in the center of Paris near Notre Dame, where Paris originated. It is so beautiful.



Look at all of the guilding and iron work...and this is just the outside! The tall spire to the left is Saint Chappelle...an absolutely gorgeous church. It was a church for royalty (because they couldn't go to church with the commoners who went to Notre Dame) and it is reflected in the design and decoration. I didn't go inside but I found some pictures.



This is the lower level where the lower class people worshipped. It is painted in the most brilliant blue but is probably not even a shadow of what it used to look like. On the blue walls are tiny little gold fleur de lis, the French royalty's symbol.





These are the amazing Saint Chappelle windows. These pictures do not do justice to them...they are absolutely beautiful and so intricate. You look at them and can't even imagine the work that must have gone into the windows and how they survived all these centuries and the Revolution.



So this is the front of the Palais de Justice. I couldn't find any pictures of the interior (aside from the lobby) but nothing in the US would ever compare to this. Nothing. The ceilings have the most intricate and colorful murals and guilding. There are marble statues and carvings all over the walls. The walls are ever painted and muraled. Absolutely beautiful. I guess that is one of the great things about having a monarchy...they spend money like no other to surround themselves with beautiful things.

After the Palais I walked over to Notre Dame but there were too many tourists to go very close. But when I do make it over there I'll take a picture of the square. It is very cool because the square has markings showing where all of the streets were located in the Middle Ages. Very cool. It also has a plaque marking the center of Paris and where all distances are measured from.

After visiting Notre Dame I went back to the office.
Later, when my uncle and I came home, my great uncle Albert and my great aunt Therese were waiting. Uncle Albert is from Normandy and exhibits many characteristics of a true Norman. He drinks calvados like water, is always very excited and he talked non-stop. I don't even know how to describe Calvados, I just know that all I can handle is about a drop. I swear, if you ran out of gas it could probably power your car!

Uncle Albert is one of those people that even if you know absolutely no french you could understand the conversation. He usually acts out what he is talking about with his hands. Very animated person. And I like him because he always tell me I'm beautiful. :)



On the lest is my aunt Martine, then my great aunt Therese, then Uncle Albert, and then my uncle Michel.

Alors...no pictures today

WARNING: The longer I am in France the more likely I am to slip into franglais. I was translating something today and I was thinking and seeing "is" but my hand was writing "est". After I started taking french classes it took me 3 years ti remember that dance en anglais is spelled with a "c" and not an "s" comme la francais.

Today was fairly boring. I was in the office this morning and then I met my supervisor (she was out yesterday) and then I went with her to a meeting (un reunion). I like french but I am getting very frustrated because my uncle just throws me into situations where I have no idea what is going on and where most people don't speak english. I know that he is trying to get me to hear more words and make an effort to talk but it is becoming very difficult. I was trying to talk to the IT guy this afternoon as he was fixing my work computer and giving me the passwords and server addresses for my work email, and although I understood him fairly well, I was having a very hard time communicating my thoughts.

Someone at the meeting put it the best way...they have "tourist english." Enough english to get them around but not enough that they can carry on a conversation. That is what I fell like. I can ask for directions, order food, ask someone to take my picture, etc. but I can't actually talk to people...yet. My uncle told me that his goal at the end of these three months is to have people tell me that I have a very good American accent...meaning, he wants me to be able to speak well enough that no one will be able to tell that it is not my first language. I dunno...that's a pretty tough goal.

It's almost 10pm my time and I should go to sleep because I was up very early this morning trying to connect to the Internet so that I could im parents. Stupid connection didn't want to work.

I'm going to try again in the (my) morning. Hopefully I'll be able to be online at about 8:30 or 9pm.

A tout allure!

Pictures a Paris

Today when my uncle and I were coming back from looking at potential new offices, we drove through Paris. Although I've seen these things dozens of times before I still love them. I'm glad that I had my camera with me to I could catch shots as we were driving through the city. Thanks for the great purse, Mom.



This is a picture of the Tour Eiffel just showing behind some typical Parisian buildings.



Here we are approaching L'Arc de Triomphe. It is really is so much prettier in person. I told my uncle that this time while I'm here I'm going to climb to the top and he was astonished that I have never been up there before.



Crossing one of the many bridges across the Seine River. I love how all of the old historic architecture is combined with the trees and the new, modern buildings. It's wonderful how you can be walking down the street and then stumble upon a centuries-old church which is still in use.



The Tour Eiffel after we crossed another bridge. I have to say that after all the times I've been here, this is still my favorite. My mom hates it when I pick that as my one thing to do while I'm here. Hey...my dad always has to go see Napoleon and he hasn't moved in hundreds of years either! Right, Dad? Don't you just love how it just rises out of the ground near buildings? My uncle doesn't understand my fascination with it either but then he lives here so to him it is no big deal...it's almost like the Golden Gate Bridge for us Bay Area folks (but that still makes me smile, too).



La Tour Eiffel getting its close-up. :)





Although I was unable to take pictures of the Opera Garnier I found some for you. This place is absolutely beautiful! Think of old-time opera houses that you see in movies and this is it. The lobby is guilded and has stautes of many famous writers, musicians and other notables.





Look how beautiful the stairs are and all of the guilding over all of the walls. I tried to find a picture of the painted ceiling but none of them did it any justice. Walking inside of it you can just imagine all of the people who have been inside of it watching plays or operas. I would love to buy tickets to something here before I leave but I think it would be way too expensive.

These are something for you to enjoy while I am sleeping. Hopefully in the next few days I will be able to take lots of pictures but who knows.

Dad: I will take some pictures when Tonton Albert and Terese come up this weekend. And uncle Michel said we would be visiting a cousin in Grenoble when he and I go to some famous skiing town (I can't remember the name) to look over a construction site.

Hi from France

Hi everyone. It is Wednesday afternoon and I am getting settled into my new room. The flight was good, a little bumpy at times, but overall it was nice. Right now I am waiting for my uncle to come home so we can go to the office ( he had a meeting earlier and wanted me to sleep in). I enjoy France and might go into Paris this afternoon.

So far not much has happened. I accompanied my uncle to one of his yoga classes last night. I really liked it because it was so relaxing. I've also started reading and doing assignments for my business classes. They seem like they are going to be a lot of work but I guess they are a small price to pay to be able to live in Paris for 3 months.

I'm waiting for the IT specialist to come to the house and hook up my laptop so that I can have the Internet in my room (and then I can use IM and talk to people). So far the trip has been really nice.

Some family is coming into Paris this weekend so that should be fun.

Now I should go drink my tea before it gets cold.

Leaving

I'm sitting at my desk thinking about leaving. In about an hour we're going to pack up and head off to the airport. Part of me is sad because I want to stay here, but then part of me is excited because I love Paris and I want to see my uncle. I know that after a few days I'll be happy that I went but now it's more sad than happy.

I'm scared because as of right now my french is not very good. I have to work in an office where most of the people don't speak english so that means I'll learn french very quickly. My uncle will be there to help translate if I need help but still...

Ok, off to finish up the last few things before I leave. Talk to you all in a few days.

BYE!

Packing Sucks!

I am trying to pack for my trip (I leave Monday!) and I am having a very hard time. I have two big suitcases and I don't have enough room. It's so sad...for three months I only have a few pairs of pants and I have to keep taking out shirts. If I weren't going to be working it wouldn't be so bad because I could pack casual clothes. However, I have to pack lots of nice work clothes so it's like I need 2 wardrobes. The other crappy thing is that the temperature will change from almost 80 degrees to about freezing by the time I leave. Again, need clothes for 2 different climates. Bah!

I'm giving up on it tonight and just going to deal with it tomorrow. I'm hoping it will be packed by Monday....