time is zipping by
The past ten days have gone crazy fast. Last week I decided, very last minute, to reapply for the assistantship program. Technically, I don't think I can do it. You're allowed to participate for two years, which I've already done. But I'm hoping that since the first year was through the French Embassy in DC, and the second year was through the rectorat in Paris, that maybe the Parisian rectorat never contacted the French Embassy, so that they don't know that I'm ineligible. This is all more likely than it might sound, as the French governmental agencies I've worked with, including the rectorat, are completely useless. Not only that, but they don't seem to computerize a whole hell of a lot. Everything is done on paper, in triplicate, with raised stamps. So, fingers crossed that I safely slip through the cracks!
I won't know if I'm accepted or not till April, so please don't ask me about it until then. But applying so very last second meant a big scramble to get the paperwork done. I saw my doctor for two seconds, and he teased me by threatening to write that I'm not mentally healthy enough to work with children. I got Christophe to write one of the teacher recs, and have the secretary at his school stamp it, I got Lisa's husband to write the second rec, and stapled his business card to the form. I luckily had an extra, official transcript from Brown lurking in my file box. And then I spent about two hours at Michel's office, filling in the online form, printing, and making copies.
It's funny, cause when I originally applied, back in Winter 2005, I spent AGES gathering all my materials, and agonizing over my answers. And this time it was so slap-dash, whipped together in a moment. My application is complete, I didn't forget anything or write incomplete answers, but I just stressed much less about it. Normally I totally agonize over forms and applications . . . this is a definite personal improvement, and I guess I owe French paperasse a big thanks for wearing me down so completely that I think nothing of scarily detailed application instructions. Whoop!
Last Thursday, Pauline and I went to Beaubourg to see the Futurisme exhibit. I didn't love it, although there were a few great pieces. But I've been wanting to see it for ages, so I'm glad we went. Aside from a book launch party with Lauren on Friday, I had pretty much nothing planned all weekend. But then it turned out to be a great two days!
Saturday, after tutoring Lucas (we're working on the TH sound now, FYI), I headed over to the Louvre. When my dad visited last January he bought me the annual pass, and it was a fantastic present. The Louvre is 9€ for a visit, which is a lot of money. So if I didn't have this pass, I would never go. But Saturday I spent a good 90 minutes there, strolling through the Mesopotamian antiquities and decorative arts. After watching a totally crap movie, De l'Autre Côté du Lit, I got a happy surprise when Anna called to say her babysitting was canceled, and she was coming over for dinner.
On my walk home, I realized that I had all the ingredients to try a new recipe I've had my eye on, pasta with yogurt and caramelized onions, from a Greek cookbook. It was really good, although it seemed to require a ridiculous number of pots. Between straining the yogurt, caramelizing the onions, grating the cheese, blanching the green beans, etc etc, I used almost every pot in the house.
And then on Sunday, I had a delicious lunch with the Auguste family, starting with an enormous wedge of foie gras from Colmar. This meant that it had slices of truffle wedged in between layers of foie gras, and was extra delicious. After a late afternoon nap, I met Lauren for a semi-ironic viewing of Twilight. Whenever Robert Pattinson smirked, I thought he was totally hot, but otherwise he just looked like he needed to fart most of the time. I also thought some of the casting choices were truly weird. Particularly the four Cullen siblings. They're supposed to be unearthly beautiful, and they're just not. Attractive, sure. But could the director really not find four HOT actors in all of Hollywood? Also, what the hell was Elizabeth Reaser doing in this movie? Bizarre.
After having such a good weekend, I felt really prepared for this week. And it really did just zip by. I did loads of work for my part-time job, saw a new chiropractor, tutored, and babysat a few times.
Tuesday night Anna, Pauline, and I met at a jazz club on Quai de Valmy for an Obama celebration. Unfortunately I had to miss the actual inauguration, since I was tutoring the whole time, but it was so great to be out that night. People were wearing American flag bandanas, Obama t-shirts, waving little American flags . . . and these were French people! It's been a looooong time since I've felt comfortable, nevermind proud, to be an American here.
I had to wake up pretty early for a rather important meeting, so I think it might be nap time, before meeting up with Anna, Pauline, and Bret for vegetarian Chinese. Bonnie knew it!
