pour ne pas voir qu'un nouveau jour se lève, elle ferme les yeux et dans ses rêves, elle part

People start blogs for any number of reasons. But they seem to have a genre, a goal, for instance, a study abroad blog, or a book review blog, or political commentary blog. Others have a sort of memoire blog, which is more like a public journal and that makes me squeamish to think about. Or even recipe blogs, I found one of those and boy, do I wish I could cook.

This started out as a study abroad blog. I’m still abroad, but not studying, and my life, while awesome, is not exactly novel worthy. Yet. So sometimes I have a hard time determining where to go with this. I have all sorts of brillant thoughts during the day (and night) that I think would be perfect to share here, except I never have those thoughts when something is available to jot it down. When I do have time to sit down and write something, I’m usually exhausted or my mind completely blank.

I know a lot of what I put up here is photos, particulary desserts, which are always awesome to look at, though I prefer eating them. And therein lies the problem. I’m trying not to eat so much dessert (one a week, on Saturday). I have a wedding to look nice and not-fat for this summer (yes, that’s a shout-out to my brother and his lovely fiancée who reads this) and I honestly could lose a few pounds. Or at least turn it into muscle instead of flab. So no more desserts regularly. I just get to smell them every time I walk by the bakery, which is every time I leave or return to my apartment. It’s torture.

But in a similar vein, it’s getting to be spring time. Warm and sunny, at least for the past week, and of course that makes me want to look good and dress well and be out and about. So I’ve been doing some shopping, bit by bit, one piece at a time, and stocking up on my make up supply which has dwindled over the years as I haven’t bought much new make up in a long, long time. Probably since I started college.

In the past few weeks, I’ve gone to Paris twice, not with the goal of shopping, though that is a nice benefit, but to take the French language proficiency exam. I just finished it yesterday. We’ll see how well I did in a month. It’s necessary to go to a French university, which is still my plan for next year, and it’s a lifetime certificate to prove you’ve attained a certain level in the language. It looks good on a resumé, in other words.

I’ve also had our winter break at the end of February, and I spent most of the time in Paris. Can you tell I love that city? Even living in it, which let me tell you, that is the way for the honeymoon glow to wear off: live with something. Just because you love a city doesn’t mean you’ll love it after you’ve lived there. For instance, I like La Rochelle, but I don’t love it. I would prefer to visit, and live in Paris. Or some other bigger city where there are more stores and more things to do on a regular basis. La Rochelle is, frankly, quite small after awhile.

Since the end of the break, I’ve been back to work, hectic work, and the scary realization that I have three weeks left. Then spring break and then May, in which I get to travel around France with my parents and friends and then will be forced to leave for the summer. And turn twenty-three, which is no small feat. I’ll be in the Dordogne for that, whereas last year I turned twenty-two in Charlotte and the year before turned twenty-one in Paris. Sort of an interesting way to track your life, looking at where you were on your birthday.

I’ve been following news like the news junkie that I am, and I have a lot of opinions, of course, on political matters. I should express them but . . . I’m too lazy.

I don’t know what I’m going to do this summer, and the thought gives me panic attacks, so I avoid that. I’ve been trying to put money aside but making as little as I do, that’s difficult. I think I’ll have near two thousand euro in my savings before the summer, and I’ll have my apartment’s deposit will be helpful, but still, panicky. I need a temporary job, and I think something to do with tutoring French. Not that most American students are into getting tutored in a foreign language over their summer break.

Did I mention I burned the crap out of my arm a last weekend? Tea kettle plus the little metal thing on a hair tie on my wrist and I got a second degree burn that’s quite lovely adorning my wrist bone.

So that’s pretty much the life update. At the moment, I have nothing really impressive to say. I’m still torn about what direction to go with my life, and as always, I’m totally lost in the middle of nowhere.

i'd rather drive a truck

It’s a busy time of year. I’m working and trying to get over a cold that resulted from my jetlag. I’m back to working on the island for two weeks. I’m extremely stressed out for no particular reason but oh well.

Christmas break feels like a dream. It hardly seems like it happened even though it wasn’t very long ago. The whole trip involved many delays and a lot of snow, which is really not normal. I was late leaving Paris and several days late leaving Charlotte. I had a good time, and enjoyed spending my time doing nothing. Once back in La Rochelle, it was back to the grind almost immediately. I didn’t even get over the jetlag before I was back at work.

A few weeks ago, I went over to a friend’s place and we made home-made quiche Lorraine. Then we ate a galette des rois, or a King Cake, in honor of the epiphany. It’s a French tradition to eat these cakes in January. I’ve had several and they’ve all been delicious. Most of them have almond paste in the middle and they’re made of flaky pastry.

Here’s the quiche:

Beautiful, isn't it? It was delicious, too.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of desserts to show you. Mostly because I forget to take them, and then also because I'm trying not to eat so many. I've been eating a lot of clementines, which are delicious and sweet and cheap. I also bought myself a box of nice chocolates to have one, each day. And at the chocolate shop, I saw Christmas chocolates on sale and couldn't resist:
Isn't he cute? Delicious, too.

I anticipate some travel in my future, though I haven't done much in the past month. I've been saving up so that later this year I could do more. I'm also severely tempted to spend some money on a medieval encyclopedia because I really want it and I feel like I would get enormous use out of it. I'm in the process of writing two-ish novels set in the period, and sometimes I have to look up very obscure things.

I'm beginning the process of applying for grad school in France, which takes several steps and can be quite complicated. I have to translate my diploma, my transcript, and my c.v. into French, which is taking me some time. The first two have to be translated by an official certified translator, which makes things harder (and more annoying). Oh well.

Vacation is coming up, the winter one (not to be confused with the Christmas break) in February. I'll be spending some time in Paris and around the region of La Rochelle some more. And I'll need to study up on my French grammar in the next few months as I have to pass the DELF or the DALF sometime soon. It's the test to assess your language abilities so that the universities can be sure you'll be able to take the courses in French. I will admit that the thought of writing a thesis or dissertation in French is intimidating, not to mention reading a lot of French texts. But it will be worth it, and I am capable of it.

I have a hard time concentrating on any one thing for very long, so we'll see how this all goes.

I have to close with a mention of the most devastating piece of news I've received recently: Keith Olbermann's show is gone. A large part of my morning ritual is watching Countdown on my computer while getting ready in the morning, and now thats . . . it's over. It's so sad. What will I do in the mornings without my daily dose of passionate political commentary? Rachel Maddow is good but she's not the same thing.