Walkin around Paris..

Today i went on a walk with one of my favorite people, Megan(she is the marathon girl). We decided to go to the to the Musee de Marmatton, which has tons of famous impressionism art by monet, renoir.... etc Once we got there, we flashed our art cards and usually it is free, but I forgot that you have to pay 5 euros to get in. SO being the cheap person I am, i decided to sit outside while she went in and look at the art(don't worry i didn't skip out- I have seen the museum before). While she was in the museum I had a dandy ol time just sitting on the bench. No really i did-- I did all my favorite things. I sat and played solitare on my ipod, while listening to music, while people watching. I really really do love people watching. People are so weird and interesting, especially in big cities. Anyways, I was sitting on the bench and some man comes over to me and starts talking about the bus time and tells me that i am just in time and it is coming. I think he was only talking to me because i was young and he was board. It made me laugh though because I had know idea i was sitting at a bus stop and the funny part is that there was a park across the street that had about a thousand benches. But NO, that would have been too smart of me to walk across the street. Instead, I put myself on a bench that had the potential of making me look like a stupid tourist. I can just imagine the bus coming at watching me just sit there cluelessly. Its not that big of a deal but i was glad that guy came by. Anyways i moved myself to the garden to another bench. Then when megan came back we decided to go on a little walk and get a pastry to hold us over for dinner. So the best part of the walk came when we got a gorgeous view of the Eiffel Tower as we crossed the Seine to get to the metro station. We decided it was the perfect picture opportunity. So we as this guy to take a picture of us. He asked us, "do you want the eiffel tower in the background?". Right when he said that i was thinking "of course, what else?". So he takes the pic and then shows it to us. I looked at it and he has completely cut off the whole top of the Eiffel Tower. So, I was thinking. He probably just messed up so then I ask him to take one more, holding the camera longways. I was thinking "that way he can't mess up and he has to get the whole thing in the backround." So he is infront of us.. bending down on his knees, practically, looking like he is trying to get the perfect picture. Then he shows it too us. This time it is only our heads and one of the legs of the Eiffel Tower. I just kindly thanked him and he left. Immediatly after Megan and I just start busting up laughing. How could this guy be, so stupid. Why would we only want one leg of the eiffel tower in our picture?? INCONCEIVABLE! After we took pictures by ourselves and then we took a picture of the both of us that fit almost the whole Eiffel tower. I still to this moment can't figure out what that guy was doing bending down and taking our picture... 

One more funny story i forgot about...

Really quick... On the train ride back from Strasbourg a bunch of us were doing homework for our conversation class. Allison and I were talking to our director's wife's brother who was a former French missionary. As he was giving us help with vocab words, we were talking about the word for fart and burp. (Normally I wouldn't have thought to put that as my vocab word but Karin gave me this nifty dictionary with different subjects and topics and it was a vocab word under one of the topics.. we also read the love/relationship section-it was pretty hilarious) So going on with our story...The word for fart is peter- we started to talk about all the mistake americans make when they try to make up french words. One of them was.. can i pet your dog.... "Puis-je peter votre chien."  but that really translates can i fart on your dog... Allison and I just started busted out laughing. Then, that made me think back... I really hope i never said to my host lady.. can i fart on your cat!! J'espere que non!

I'm a dork

So yesterday I had a little alone time and I went to Parc Monceau to read my book. The Parc is so pretty and it was such a peaceful place to read. In one spot of the park there is this ancient looking curve of columns that surrounds a pond. I love it. Anyways, I left Parc Monceau to go on a walk and on the walk I saw Fnac(like best buy in US) and i decided to go into the store. On my way back out a young girl was trying to stop people to talk to them. People are always on the street trying to do this and it is usually just to talk to them about current events and such. So, I was walking along and this girl looks straight at me and sticks up her hand and says, "Bonjour". Right then my natural reaction occured.... I gave her a big high five!! Just to let you know, high fives are considered really dorky here. I talked to my french friend about high fives and she said that they are just not the cool thing to do. Right as I high fived that girl, my immediate thought was "oh my goodness- she is going to thing I am so weird" and sure enough she just bust out laughing at me AND I was all alone so it just made me feel even dumber. So that was my embarressing act of the day.  Voila!

here are the GC pics i was laughing at

BAHAHAHA .. i added a normal one just for the comparison

I couldn't help but to add one more thing

So this week was pretty much the best! I forgot to say that we went to the FRance- Lithuania soccer game at the Stade to France. I ended up getting there late because my host lady had made dinner for me a lot later then when I had told her I needed to eat it by in order to make it to the game in time. Also what was even worse is that I got of at the farthest exit possible and had to walk about a mile to the stadium, followed by about 1000 stairs to go to the nose bleed seats we got... So what does that mean--- yes, I was sweatin up a storm. But after all the hustle it was worth it because when I got there I got yell and scream- ALLEZ Le BLEU and I got to observe Marissa being a Freak as she waved her France flag and yelled sauce fable- her translated version of "weak-sauce". I also experienced more french creepers. I ended up sitting by a guy that was talking to his friend on his video phone and then he started facing the phone towards me so the friend could see my face. CREEP.  So that is the end

PS

Also props to my Friend megan because she ran the whole Paris marathon with out even training. I am so so dang proud of that girl!

France: Where did all the good people go?

Today i was infuriated and still am about the costumer service in France. There is only one word that can describe it: RUDE. Here is the story behind it. So today I was going to get a crepe for dinner and I was in an area were there is only one crepe stand. So, being my lazy self, i resorted to that crepe stand since i was to lazy to walk anywhere else. The thing is, I have been to this crepe stand before and the man who runs it is very rude to tourist. Also my friends went there before as well and experienced the same thing. But still, we decided to go back- just because our hunger and satiation rules over our desire to be treated with respect like all normal human beings should be. So we returned. Except this time he was extremely impolite. First off, i ordered in French and he spoke back in broken english asking us what we wanted and then i repeated in french because i was speaking simple phrases that I KNEW i was saying right. and then he continued to speak in English. And everything we say he is responding in a very annoyed way like we are just a hassle to him. Then he puts 3 premaid crepes onto the burner and my friend ask if those were fresh- because, heh, were were paying  5 euros which was very over priced for a crepe. The man starts shouting at us like we are so stupid. He saying" yes well of course there fresh, feel the pile its warm i made them 2 minutes ago-- it is always the same things with these stupid tourist." At this point I wanted to punch his face in. First off, Don't talk to someone that way, and second off, don't talk to someone who is giving you buisness that way. I was pretty much on the verge of walking away. Anyways moral of the story: don't let your hunger take over your desire to be treated like a human bean. 

That was not the first time that has happened before. I have just decided the French are awful with customer service. They don't have patience and many of them are not respectful. 

But on the brighter side there are nice french people out there. In fact, I am friends with my French host-lady's neice, Elenore- and she is the sweetest girl ever! 2 nights ago we went over to her house and had a little party-she had prepared a bunch of typical french foods for us and it was sooo sweet. After we looked at her clothes company stuff- Ni chemise Ni Pull- and Marissa, Jessica and I all bought stuff. Elenore and her friend were so fun and sweet. After they were going to take us salsa dancing but when we got to the club it turned out it cost 20 euros so we decided against it. But that was not the end of surprises for the evening. As we were walking back to get on the metro we started talking about being scared of pick pocketers and people who but you on the streets and how you should react. Right at that very moment. This guy walks up from behind and puts his arm around me and Jessica. Somehow jessica escapes and he starts to pull my face towards him. Of course I am oblivious and I thought it was just Marissa being funny, then all of the sudden I see it is not her, but this guy coming at my face!! Right as he is inches from my face I let out this piercing scream and scare the shizer out of this boy and he backs off. Unfortunately, he kept following us for a while but finally we sneak away to a different metro stop. Anyways, thought it was a funny story.

Also, I am loving conference! Except I was in such a giggly mood today! and then Marissa started doing the photobooth with her mac computer and I could not stop laughing... I probably offended everyone in the room. K... well that is all I have to say. Hope it wasn't too boring-- I'll try to get the photo booth pic that made me laugh so hard and then you guys will understand why.....