Thursday was our first day of French class. We had a little get to know you activity using French. It was kind of easy. I hope I can move up. I talked to my teacher about it and she said she would decide Monday. I really should have reviewed before the test... oh well, c'est la vie. My teacher and class are really good though, so I guess it wouldn't be too bad to have to stay in it. She is really beautiful, she kind of reminds me of the woman on Big Fish, you know the son's French wife.
We had lunch at a very popular little cafe type thing that has lots of food a emporter (to go - and there are accents there but I don't know how to write them on this computer). I got a sandwich with tomatoes and this really great cheese that I forgot what it was called and some type of meat. I don't know what it was lol, I think pork of some kind. We ate with our friends in the courtyard of the Catho.
Photo class was interesting. We looked at slides and learned about the beginnings of photography and a little about the science behind it. We saw some awesome slides by this one guy named Abe Morell. We looked at his slides as an example of a kind of camera obscura. And then mostly looked at historical pictures of Paris that were really great. It was so hot though. I was expecting the weather to be cooler and maybe rainy but it is in the 90s every day and like I said before there is no air conditioning and the metro is death. Like you can feel the sweat on the poles when you have to stand... so gross.
Our dinner that night was absolutely delish though! We had like wheat kernels that had been cooked somehow I think with like garlic and butter or something. O it was amazing and we had les haricots vert (green beans) and un omlette. YUMMY. It is the best dinner Madame has made us so far.
We just relaxed again and I watched TV to see if I could catch some things I know. TV and radio are hard to understand because people talk very fast. It is funny they show old American shows here all the time like Malcolm in the Middle comes on when we are eating dinner and they play other old series like Starsky and Hutch. They also have MTV but dubbed in French. It is pretty funny.
After we rested for a while, Brittany and I went out for a promenade in our neighborhood trying to take some pictures. The lighting wasn't good so we weren't able to really practice what little we have learned in photo class so far. We just are changing aperture really and keeping our ISOs at 400 and shutter speed between 125 and 250 so we ended up just using night settings but practiced finding things that looked interesting to us. It was fun. We want to go back sometime when the lighting is better. I really like our neighborhood. There is a busy street not far but as soon as you leave it there is a hominess and quiet sociableness to the area. It feels pretty safe all the time, too.
I'm still uploading pics so I'll include them in the next post :)
Saturday, July 4, 2009
le 2 juillet
Thursday, July 2, 2009
le 30 juin et le 1 juillet
Ok, so I forgot to tell you why the French don't shower. Ha ha, it is my hypothosis because the showers are horrible. I feel like I've written about this before but the shower head is not mounted on the wall. It is just on the end of a cord. They call it le telephone de la douche or telephone of the shower. Whenever you want water on you, you have to hold the thing and pour it over yourself. And the water is like either scorching hot or freezing. I am getting used to the knobs so I can manipulate it better but my first shower was like uh, no wonder lol.
So on Tuesday we had academic meetings. It was basically like the first day of class for photography. We got like the schedule and talked about how the class would work. We went to a nearby grocery store for lunch. With Christy, Amanda, Allison, and Brittany, we got some cheese and a baguette and I bought a pear to go with which was so juicy and delicious. It was great. We picnic'ed in the ISA office which is not allowed lol but we didn't know so it was our first and last time.
Then we had a little meeting about French class and how to behave in homestays.
After the meetings, me and Brittany went home to a yummy dinner of salmon and lentils and the standard salad, bread and cheese. Madame likes to talk to us at dinner time which is good to practice our french. Lol my mom would gag at this though, her two cats like to get up on the table. It is kind of gross but she makes them get off pretty quick although she doesn't really care if they sit by the bread... I had a cat hair on my slice on time. Her cat Moustique is named for mosquitos, that is the french word for it (I don't know if I spelled it right). When Moustique was little, she didn't retract her claws so she was always poking people with them like a mosquito bite lol.
Tuesday night we didn't go out or anything. Brittany and I reviewed some french for the exam the next morning and decided to go to bed early so we could get up early and go to a creperie in the morning for breakfast. Unfortunately, the creperie was closed in the morning so we couldn't have breakfast there :( but we went to a boulangerie and had pain au chocolat instead yum!
The placement exam was very hard. Everyone thought so. The orale part was the worst. We had to talk to a professeur for a few minutes but it was like all in this crowded room so it was loud and the french talk softly so I couldn't hear my professeur very well lol and so I didn't do as well as I could have. I got into Elementaire 3 and I was hoping to be in Intermediate 1 which is the next level. They are nice about switching us though, so I think if I do the homework we got today and it is really easy I will ask to be switched.
After the exam, we had a break for lunch. The country is big about lunch. The break is like from 12 - 2 and some shops close down for that time. We went to the same place where I got the quiche but this time I ordered a sandwich and it was very good. All of their sandwhiches are on artisan breads with hard crusts and they have funny ways of cutting vegetables and there are big thick slices of cheese. They are good though. I liked the sandwhich a lot better than the quiche.
For our first Photo class, we took pictures at the Luxembourg gardens. I didn't take very many and the ones I did take came out all blue becasue I accidentally had the white balance weird. I just felt like a creeper taking pictures of people w/o asking but when you ask they act different. I just need to get over it lol but I have some pictures I like. There were two old women sitting in the park that were really cute and I asked to take their picture and we had a small conversation. They were very sweet. Most of the French are sweet and helpful if you try to speak french. They just don't smile much when they walk around the city which is why I think people must think they are rude.
After class we had another meeting at the office where we learned a few things about what to do in Paris and how to travel to other countries. I had my first crepe on the way home. They have this nifty tool that gets the batter all spread out perfectly and I totally want one. It was yummy but I didn't have my camera to document it :(
For dinner we had fish sticks which were actually pretty good with some yummy potatoes (and like always, assume we had bread, salade, cheese, and a slice of sausage). We decided we wanted to walk around the Champs Elysees but my friends are kind of directionally challenged. I do well if I have north, south, east, west but Paris is like in a circle so that didn't do me any good. We ended up not being able to find it which is funny cause it's huge lol. So we just walked around and then went home after a while. But we did see the Paris Opera House which is kind of cool. It is a roman like building and has a sculpture of like Mary Magdelene and the 12 apostles on the top triangle thing. It is really beautiful but dirty. There are dirty parts that are like all black. It is going under restoration now though, so it is starting to get cleaned.
I am transfering pictures from my cards right now so as soon as those get loaded I'll put some up.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Bonjour! le 28 et le 29 juin
Ok, so I typed up this big long post in Word but I can't copy and paste into this window which sucks so I'll just let y'all know about the first two days in one post.
The first day, le 28 juin, which was a Sunday I got to the airport in the morning and met with some other people from ISA. We were all pretty tired from our flights. My flight was pretty good. I got some sleep and they fed us dinner and breakfast so that was nice.
A shuttle dropped us off at our homestays. My roommate accidentally came a day early so she was already here when I arrived. My host mother is very cute. She is small, like everything else in Paris. She is so sweet. She has a two bedroom apartment and so Brittany (my roommate) and I thought that we would be sharing a room but she sleeps on a cot in the living room and we each have our own room. My roommate is so sweet! I like her a lot and we are similar so we are getting along great.
Madame's house is a little old, also like many things in Paris but my room is so cute. The window is so French lol. I will have to take pictures of the whole apartment.
For the first night we had like rice and salmon sauce stuff. It was a little weird but ok. Breakfast on Monday was an experience, too. Lol we take our breakfast to our rooms so that we don't like wake up Madame. We have toast with jam and if we want we can have yogurt. She also has tea or coffee or juice. I tried the apple juice and it tasted a little funny and the yogurt also tasted weird. It was like eating sour cream, it was like runny and sour lol. I will try the yaourt avec le fruit next time. I took a picture of my first breakfast. Oh, and here is Brittany eating a pastry on our first day (well, her second and my first - we went out and walked around the neighborhood)
On Monday we had orientation at the Catholic Institut de Paris (le Catho). We met the other students in the program and learned some basic safety information and stuff about Paris. For lunch, we just went out walking and found a deli/pastry place and decided to picnic in the Luxembourg gardens. I got the quiche. It was a little runny I have to say I was dissapointed but the gardens are beautiful. There was a little gallery with this amazing sculpture exhibition from a modern sculptor. There is so much art appreciation here it is wonderful. We went back to le Catho for a city tour via bus. We drove around Paris and this funny English guy told us stories about what we were seeing. We got out at the Museum of Rodin (which I can't wait to go back to. We are going to visit the museums on Sunday when they are all free) and the Eiffel Tower but only for a few minutes. Here are some highlights (kind of in a weird order lol):
My runny quiche
Me @ the Eiffel Tower!!!!!! EEEE We are going for a tour next week!
This is me with some of me and Brittany's better friends in the program. From left to right: Amanda (TX), moi, Brittany (LA), Courntey (IL), Christy (IDK lol man, now I feel bad).
And me and Brittany. This one and the one before are @ the Rodin museum.
This is the cool sculpture exhibit @ the Luxembourg gardens. I wanted to take more but didn't know if photos were allowed so this was the one sneaky one I got.
A view from our tour bus. Brittany is in the act of taking a photo as well. This is at one end of the Luxembourg gardens at the end of the pathway is the palace where the senate meets.
Here is Christy and Courtney @ our picnic in the gardens.
After the bus tour, we were really tired. Madame made us Lasagna with Sardines (which still had scales and bones! yikes! They were yummy but it was weird and awkward eating around them. Madame like ate it all lol) with lemon and like zuchinni (couchron en francais I think) puree stuff which was pretty good. Lol Brittany and I saw it before and were like um, what is that green stuff? I hope it's not for dinner lol and it was but it was better than it looked. We had salade and bread and cheese of course.
After a little rest, we went out to the Latin quarter with some friends. It was me, Brittany, Allison (NC), Daisy (IDK), and Christy. We got some glace (ice cream/gelato) and walked around. The latin quarter is very fun and young. There was a really cute postcard store that I want to go back to. It has some really weird postcards lol that I didn't get at all, like a weird comic of a pig or something but the other ones were cute.
O and we saw the Notre Dame all lit up. It is so beautiful. I want to go to a mass there and see the inside. People were picnicing along the Seine as well and there were street artists everywhere. In front of the Notre Dame there were these dancers who danced with fireworks. It looked really cool but when we finally got up close enough to see it well their show was over. I need to find some pictures from facebook and download them so that I can post them here.
I'll tell you about my next few days when I get a chance! I need to catch up or I'll start forgetting what happened when. Au revoir! J'aime Paris!!
Friday, June 26, 2009
au revoir :)
So, I thought I would let you all know you can email me while I am gone and you can talk to me via this blog, facebook, twitter, any online thing.
I also downloaded skype so I will be on that occasionally. If you want to, you can download it as well and look me up, then we can chat or talk for free when we are both online.
I will hopefully be posting while abroad, a bientot mes amis!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Philosophy of Dreaming: Fiss
Ready for the next mini discussion about constructive theories of dreaming? I have a lot to fit in before I leave so it will be pretty condensed. (Plus, I didn't really do the reading for this one so I'm simply referring to my notes lol).
Fiss's essential point is that "dreams are the theatre of subliminal unconscious stimuli." Fiss says that throughout our waking life, we pick up unconscious stimuli in addition to conscious stimuli. Stimuli meaning neural effects from external and internal cues. The conscious stimuli we process immediately and react to it in waking life.
Dreams process the unconscious stimuli that we get throughout the day. For example, say you meet someone you haven't seen for a while. She smiles and you talk and say how long it's been, "We should hang out sometime", etc. That night, you have a dream with that same person in it. But in the dream, she isn't happy to see you and in fact tries to run you over with her car or something. According to Fiss, your dream is revealing what your unconscious mind picked up that your conscious mind didn't: she wasn't really happy to see you and even maybe dislikes you very much. Your ucs mind could have picked this up from small clues such as a facial twinge or some body language that you didn't pick up on.
Your mind processing the unconscious data is what creates dreams. Dreams transform the unconsciously gathered data and put it into a symbolic message. In our example, the woman wanting to run you over in her car symbolizes her hatred towards you.
In this way, dreams are especially capable of bringing to our awareness facts about ourselves and the world that we normally don't notice. Dreams bring low level stimuli to our attention. This part of Fiss's theory is pretty well supported with scientific research. Some people in a test (I know this is terribly vague but I didn't write down the study so I can't reference it! Bad Ali!) were shown images faster than the eye could recognize. The test subjects were not able to describe in detail what they had seen but their dreams recorded the next morning contained details that were strikingly similar to the images that they had not consciously been able to process.
The question our class discussed here was, "Are any of the unconscious stimuli important?" What would our unconscious minds pick out as important and choose to lay out in a dream? It doesn't seem likely that we review every single unconscious stimuli throughout the day, there would be too much, so it seems likely there is a filter on what stimuli we explore in dreams. We thought perhaps emotion has something to do with emotion or cognitive significance of events, but feel free to think about that yourselves and comment if you have ideas.
Another cool thing that Fiss talks about is that unconscious stimuli can also come from within ourselves. He gave examples of dreamers who were able to diagnose illness through dreams. Some members of our class had personal experiences that supported this hypothesis. Kind of cool huh? In fact there were ancient practices were people used dreams to heal themselves and there are modern followers of that idea as well.
When doing dream work with Fiss's theory, ask yourself what you might have subliminally picked up on. Ask what your dream is trying to tell yourself about external or internal unconscious data.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
AH! PARIS, HERE I COME!
First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAKE!
And secondly, look at this: This is where I'll be staying in PARIS! I am SO EXCITED!!! EEEE It is so picturesque. I will be living with a single older woman who is a caretaker and has two grown children (who live elsewhere) but she lives in a spacious 2 bedroom apartment in central Paris and can accommodate vegetarians. I will have a female roommate also in my program. I cannot wait to go there!
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Thursday, June 4, 2009
Just for Fun - Why is it 8?
Sharon tagged me a while ago and I am bored at work and avoiding some important emails I need to send so here I am doing this little game.
8 things I'm looking forward to:
1. Paris, France! (my passport came the other day which got me even more excited!)
2. This weekend
3. Making dinner for my family tonight
4. Moving out (in the future sometime)
5. My new diet
6. Blake's birthday (lol even though he isn't excited)
7. My fall semester classes
8. Girl's night out tonight
8 things I did yesterday:
1. Used my nice new ceramic flat iron
2. Visited the Utah House
3. Watched Blake fix 'our' computer
4. Leveled my rogue on WOW
5. Watched SYTYCD
6. Bought groceries for my dinner tonight
7. Got up super early to give my dad breakfast in bed for his bday
8. Kissed Blake
8 things I wish I could do:
1. Take more dance classes
2. Play an instrument
3. Keep my room clean
4. Live in the city
5. Speak Spanish
6. Cook
7. Be lucid in dreams (I'm working on it!)
8. Dye my hair purple (ok, technically I could but I am too chicken and I don't think my employers would appreciate it)
8 shows I watch:
1. So you think you can dance
2. American Idol
4. The Office
5. King of Queens (when I'm bored and flipping channels)
6. If I had cable I would watch Say Yes to the Dress
7. and Ace of Cakes
8. and any other cake/design show
8 people I tag:
um... I don't have anyone to tag..
Tashi?
well that was fun :)
