I'm in Paris

The Lonely Forest |MTV Music

I'd like to start with this video. It's of The Lonely Forest, one of my favorite local bands from Anacortes, WA (represent!). Basically this video is quintessential Anacortes -- like there is no better way to visually describe it. And now it's on MTV which is weird... but anyways.... watching that today made me feel a million miles away from something that was so familiar to me for 18 years....

but now I'M IN PARIS! Yes it's true. I'm sitting here in an incredibly spacious apartment located in the 15th arrondissement. It's a half hour walk to the Eiffel Tower (which I intend on doing today). I have two cats named Madam Ouchka and Monssieur Picasso. I'm really happy about this! My host family is lovely : Mom (.... don't actually know her name?), sister Alice who is 14 and very hip, and Michelle (a student from UC Santa Cruz studying here for the semester. We're the same age and I look forward to having someone my own age). There are also two older siblings (21 and 24) that don't live at home but are coming over this weekend. It's interesting for me living in a house full of women - I miss my brother!

The apartment is very airy and bright and there is a lot of art and books around. And I have a little terrace attached to my room AND a tv covered in Heineken labels. This is all rather luxurious for me.

Well I'm going to get started with my day - which will include buying a map, figuring out the metro, and walking walking walking exploring avec mes amis.

Love, Clara

La premiere poste!

Hey you -

Okay well I'm just going to begin this blog by saying - I'm studying abroad in Paris next year for 9 months and I'm going to start blogging about it now because "BLOGGING IS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE" [via Stephen C. Steen]. But I'd like to talk more about that later and get some administrative things out of the way first.

Okay to begin with the blog is currently titled "An American in Paris" which I haven't decided how comfortable I feel about - super cliché right? The thing is I'm still trying to discover a more appropriate title - seeing as 1. I'm not in Paris yet and 2. I haven't even seen the movie and 3. There has got to be a really good punny title out there.

But for now I think that title is gonna stick, until I come up with something better. I had actually wanted to start this blog as soon as I found out for sure I was studying abroad - but I've been stressing out over the title all week and then today when I went to set up the blog I just kind of went for it because blogspot was putting me under a lot of pressure to decide.... like hold your horses blogspot! Can't I just start blogging and pick a title lattterrr???!?!?!?!

But on the plus side [cue google image search results for "An American in Paris"]Dance Sequences + My Main Man Shia.... so maybe this title is a lot more fitting than I initially thought.

I had hoped to come across a more witty blog title [suggestions gladly accepted] so I turned to my trusty bff wikipedia and happened upon this gem.

My nerdier readers should inquire further [especially since I figured out how to make words into hyperlinks on my first blog post everrrr!]... but for the one or two cooler/lazier readers I'll just leave you with:

Q - Why do French people only have one egg for breakfast?

A - Because one egg's 'un oeuf'. (one egg's enough)

Now if only I could fashion that masterpiece into a blog title!

Now also, about this particular entry's title - I wasn't entirely certain about how to say "post" as in "blog post" [expect further posts concerning my language insecurities] so I casually fashioned together a little Franglish.... but then I put it into my dashboard translator [not always a reputable source] which insists that "la premiere poste" means "the first post office"... which I just found kind of funny.

Sorry this blog is turning into a lot of inside jokes with myself. I promise to become a more accessible blogger at some point, but it might take some practice. I was going to talk more about my actual trip... but I think I'll save that for a future post because I need to do some homework now.

Bientôt!

Clara