one more week dun dun dun

Today is officially the laziest day of my life. I have been in bed all day, drank a bottle of Orangina & watched hours of Mad Men, Golden Girls & Law & Order. It's been beautiful.

This laziness has been brought on by the fact that I have a place for the nine days before I have a room at the Cité! I feel like I can finally stop stressing, & look forward to & appreciate the fact that I am leaving for France NEXT WEEK. I have to worry about finding a permanent apartment once I get settled, but I'm feeling more optimistic about the future search. I'm really excited that I have a good nine days to explore Paris on my own terms, a little one-on-one with my future home before school, meeting people, apartment searches etc. I plan to just absorb everything, eat a lot of baguettes, & get over the initial "holy shit, I'm in Paris" jitters.

Tentative schedule for the upcoming month:

august 21st: arrive in France, stay in the 19e arr. (see, I am so not a tourist)

30th: move into the Cité

31st: orientation

september 14th: classes begin

30th: month at the Cité ends, move into theoretical apartment

Also, will definitely make it a priority to record everything. I didn't do much of that in Ottawa, privately nor on here, & I wish I had. True, writing about work is kind of redundant (probably not my job in Ann Arbor, though, because hilarity usually ensues), but I've forgotten a lot of little things! Seeing Marina last week motivated me as well. It was fantastic seeing her again, hearing about her escapades in Paris, and poring over all the informative goodies she brought me. There's never enough time to properly catch up, it seems. Talking with Marina also confirmed that I won't be focusing on traveling while in Paris. I will visit her in Aix, Ula in Germany (most likely Aachen, Düsseldorf, and Köln), Matt in Switzerland (Laussane & Geneva, hopefully), and hopefully Anna, near Lille. Aside from that, I'm going to enjoy living in Paris, rather than being a border-crossing tourist. I should be in Europe for the summer, be it Paris or Poland, so I can be more adventurous then. We'll see what the year brings.

I was just talking to Genalou & she brought up a lot of things that my boater family/friends have brought up. 1) My family is convinced I will starve whilst in France & is always asking me what I will eat for the next year (puh-lease, do they even know me??). 2) Extended boater family always remembers to guilt me about leaving my parents. 3) Proximity to Eiffel Tower is the only important thing when describing anything in Paris. All this holds true for any traveling situation, just substitute France & the Eiffel Tower for any other country & known edifice.

This, and a lot of other incessant concerns, have been driving me crazy, but then I remember that my family's boater ways is the wind beneath my wings.

Two weeks to go before I ship out. Peeing myself just thinking about it.

I've been reading Cultural Misunderstandings: The French-American Experience as a little prep. I read sections of it for a French class I had on l'amitié (which was also the best [French] class I've ever taken), and was excited to read it. Granted, it's twenty years out of date, but I enjoy it for putting me in the 'I'm a foreigner' role that I will play for the next coming year. It makes me feel like a total foreigner, though, since I can't relate to some of the author's perceptions on American culture. Not because they're wrong, but because I'm more Polish than I thought, I guess. For example, there's a chapitre where she explains how, in French friendships, interrupting each other in conversation is a sign of enthusiasm and attentiveness, whereas in America, it's just rude. I'm always interrupting people, usually because I get too excited over my friends' stories & then end up feeling bad because I can't contain myself. Theoretically, my spastic ways will be accepted in France.

I still don't know where I'll be staying when I arrive in France so I should probably figure that out before I develop an arrythmia. I've been worrying so much about everything that I've grown indifferent to things I should be concerned with. Eh.

I was in a huge rush this morning (hate waking up on Monday) & I forgot to bring my umbrella to work, so here I am, in my office watching CSI because I don't want to get completely soaked (which is inevitable if I ever plan on leaving this building). Nevertheless, I had a great day today. This week is super busy because of a major event on Friday, but I'm really excited & I work best when there's a lot of craziness around. One of the office members is on vacation this week, but I think everything should be ok, even though she did the work of two people. The parliamentary assistant in my office is great and has arranged a couple interesting dinners and lunches for the interns next week, so I`m looking forward to that after this week`s craziness is over.

The weekend was fun, although the weather was only pretty on Saturday. We walked all over Ottawa again & around the St. Laurent River, which separates Ontario from Québec, & it was beautiful. I am perfectly content just walking around, lounging in the sun, rolling down hills, and eating gelato.

Next week is my last week! Crazy. I`m going to miss Ottawa, but mostly speaking French everyday. I love improving everyday and hearing my French become more fluid and astute. I`m also still technically unemployed so I am freaking out about that on a daily basis.

a lil dreary

It feels like October in Ottawa. It's been raining the past couple days, making the walk to work a little miserable. A fire truck passed me on my way to work this morning, only to see it again in front of my building. There was a little fire (or something?) on the floor before us, which ended up being fine, but the fire alarm was going off all morning. Canadian fire alarms sound like dial tones, definitely not like the East Quad fire alarms.

The rest of the day was pretty busy, but pretty slow. It's been like that lately. There was a Committee meeting, which ended almost an hour early because all the items of discussion had to be edited & translated for the next meeting & because no one really felt like being there. I feel like Parliament is really like any other bureaucratic office, but with more yelling & Blackberries.The other intern in my office, a francophone, assured me that I speak French better than Stephen Harper, so the day wasn't all bad.

This past weekend in Ottawa was beautiful. We went to the War Museum on Saturday, which I enjoyed, seeing as I am a museum nerd. I spent the rest of the day exploring Ottawa and enjoying the weather. I love Byward Market during the weekends -- flower & maple syrup vendors, the weather, and the pre-summer atmosphere. Wandering over to the park behind Parliament completed my zen mood. Sunday, we went to the Governor General's house, which was pretty but kind of dull. Ottawa is dominated by tulips and lilacs, I don't know how, but it's beautiful. It was a good first weekend in Ottawa, since I spent last week in Québec.

The House didn't meet last week, so this week has been much more fast-paced. My MP has a major event planned for next week, so I've been miscellaneous things to pull everything together. This week has been event coordination on top of everyday House duty & general business. I'm finally getting used to the French Canadian keyboard & I learned to tie a tie, so those are pretty big achievements so far.

I saw Mahmoud Abbas today! I just heard him speak for a little bit, but it was exciting nonetheless. I had to leave early to take a girl from the riding to QP, which was cool because it's nice to be interning for an MP that is so accessible to her riding. After work, a couple of us crossed the bridge to see a documentary in Gatineau & now I'm here, catching up on some reading & putting Neosporin on the skinned knee I have after slipping in front of my building on my way to work (per my usual clumsy ways).

the Canadian swing of things

I need to get into the swing of this blogging thing!

My group went to Québec City this weekend. Although I spent some time there last summer, I really enjoyed the trip and even saw some places I hadn't gotten around to last year. I ate and walked a lot, usually the elements of a good trip. After days of sight seeing, I got to enjoy the night life in Québec City, which was a lot of fun. Nothing in Canada is open late, though. Québec was no exception.We walked around Montréal for a few hours during a layover. I didn't realize this last year, but Montréal seems much more anglophone, or anglophone-friendly, than Québec City. An overall fun trip, but I passed out & slept for nine hours when we got back.

Interning is going well. I'm not as nervous anymore and speaking French all the time hasn't lost its appeal. I went to the Supreme Court today...it was surprisingly dull, not much to see. I've also discovered all the receptions (parties) with free food, which is great because I'm broke. I love Question Period (when the government and the opposition meet in Chambers so the opposition can ask the governement about its actions aka the two sides yell at each other and it is fantastic), which makes me a huge dork, but I look forward to it everyday. I especially love that it is in French and English, of course. I really like Ottawa, though. Maybe even love. I love working all day and learning interesting things and meeting amazing people, then walking home through the city, and going out or just chilling after work. Maybe partly because school is done with, but this experience has confirmed that I have no future in academia whatsoever. Law school will be the last of it.

Sciences Po officially accepted me. Ecstasy...except future of homelessness and relative poverty in Paris have also become official realities. I've spent most of last night and this afternoon applying to summer jobs. Hopefully I'll get something...I'm desperate.

I.

Today is Monday & I have been in Ottawa since Saturday afternoon. We went out for my birthday, which was nice because I got to meet some of my fellow interns. The dorms here are fine (East Quad was better), but the neighborhood is really nice & close to everything.

Today was my first day of interning! I won't meet my MP until tomorrow (she was out of town), but everyone in her office was enthusiastic and informative and made me excited to start working. There is a Canadian intern in the office as well, & we seem to have a fair amount of freedom in pursuing our interests. I'm most excited about speaking French everyday, although my non-québécois accent is very obvious (or so it seems to me). Someone from another office came in for a bit, and they had the thickest québécois accent I have ever heard! It's kind of growing on me. I wasn't confused or overwhelmed by speaking French or by the québécois accent, although that will most likely change as the week unravels.

We went grocery shopping after work. I love how everything is just a bit different here, in ways I never considered. I am currently drinking lychee pop & this cinnamon spread-thing, both of which I have never seen in the States. Deeeelicious.