L'aile ou la cuisse

VIDEO: Ok, so let me set you up with what's going on in this clip. Well this is from a really funny French movie. This is a really good scene I think. Any way there is this guy who is a food critic in a large food critic book. So any ways he's trying out this one restaurant (acting as an American), you'll see if he likes it or not.

THIS WEEK: I had an evaluation in my French class. When I first came here I took this evaluation and it pretty much shows your level/skill of the language so that one can start studying where their skill is. Well when I took this exam when I first came, it was bad, very bad. So bad that Celine started crying. And no I'm not lying. Well its a scale system from 1 to 4, with four main categories. Well when I first took it I had about all 1's and a 1 1/2.. So yes it was bad. But can you expect without any formal training. But I took it again this week and got all 3's. So I have to say I feel proud of my self. Its not great but I feel I'm learning, and unlike highschool Spanish, I'm not just retaining it long enough for the exam. Today was my last class for about a week, well actually exactly a week. France is once again on HOLIDAY. Yes, I think France has more HOLIDAY time than any country. Lots of places close down for about a week, for la fete de la mort, I believe they call it. AKA Halloween. So its a great country. With lots of vacation time :)

IN THE NEWS: Well its been a busy time in the local newspaper, to sum-it up in a few words: Drug bust, Sexual harassment, prostitutes busted. Well apparently this area of France is big for drug trafficking, WHO KNEW!!! Well any ways, a lot of people don't work in France, either by choice or because its hard to find jobs. Well even though, a lot of these people who don't work, seem to be driving the nicest cars in town. Well I guess the cops put 2 and 2 together and got...Well close to 4... Cause cops here don't do much. Well any ways a guy got busted who has all these nice cars, and they found about 100,000 euros worth of stuff and about 30,000 euros cash.
Today in the newspaper, we just found out that Celine's old boss just got arrested for Sexuallyharassing one of his employees. Luckily Celine doesn't work there anymore. Then not to long ago, there was this big prostitute bust. It took out a lot of the main connections in the prostitution/pimping chain. And for a while, our prostitute neighbor didn't show up. We thought she must have gotten busted. Well now we see she's back and serving man kind as best she can.

Well that's about it, I'm off to Spain for the weekend. Buenos Noches, this kinda makes me think of the counting crows song.. Holiday in Spain.

I may take a holiday in Spain
Leave my wings behind me
Drink my worries down the drain
And fly away to somewhere new 

A word from the wise, when in dought bring an Umbrella!

So I get this Monthly email from nationalgeographic.com and it sends me the latest of the best pics for wallpaper, for your computer. I would recommend signing up for it. Its great to see all these amazing places. This one I have here is from Sydney, Australia. And yes I have it set as my wallpaper. So be like me, go get it. Any who, the week in a few words. Well it rained most of the time, its def Fall. But a lot of the time it just looks grey so I'm not sure if it will rain or not. Well So twice this week I went to my French class, where I have to take a bus to get to and from. Well of course each time when I'm coming back from the bus stop it rained on me, (its a long walk from the bus stop to my place). Oh well. Any ways tonight two of our friends came over to our place to eat. We have this little grill thing that you set in the middle of the table and then you can make all bunch of things. Like Ham, Bacon, Cheese, potatoes. Its like a Fondu Machine on steroids. It was fun. Any ways it was Julie and Florian that came over and any ways we're going on a weekend with them to Spain in about a week and a half so that should be fun. Its probably not like Mexico, a lot less Mexicans I'm sure.

Dang Neighbors!!

Well the neighborhood we live in looks like any other neighborhood. But unfortunately its kind a like the ghetto, expect with a lot less deaths. Well any ways this post is about a few of our neighbors that just drive us crazy, everyday!

This picture you see is our neighbor across the road. Now why should this bother me, Well its because she's a prostitute. That's right lady's and gentlemen, we have our very own, authentic French whore (although she looks asian). Well it started out that since I work from home, I usually keep my windows at home open, and I noticed everyday I always heard a lot of knocking on a door, starting about 3pm. So naturally I checked it out, so everyday she shows up about 3 and leaves about 6. And inbetween these guys come knock on the door look around very nervously and then the door will crack open a bit, and then in they Walk. I couldn't believe it. Everyday its like this. I'd feel really bad if it was something else. But everyday these old guys come (one guy was like 80) and go about every half hour. Oh and then every evening a guy (PIMP) comes a picks her up. Its actually become a joke to see this now.

So now we also live in a building that is 3 stories. Lucky for us were right in the middle of the building on the 2nd floor, the worst place to be. Ok well we live in a building were two college students (girls) live. But over the summer they were gone so it was great. Then now, school is back in and so are they. Well upstairs, there is this girl who walks like an elephant. We can hear every place she goes in her apartment. Its really annoying. And we think that she likes to reagrange her apartment because everyday we here everything being moved. But that's nothing when her boyfriend comes to visit. Not only does he add to the noisy walking, but lucky for us we can hear every moment of their love session. It usually starts off with a rhythmic beating of the bed hitting the wall, then ends in a very loud moaning and pounding. We really think they are into some kinda S&M thing, cause celine says she can hear them yelling and cussing at each other during.

Ok, well on to the next. Downstairs. You'd think this would be a good thing for us, and a bad thing for her, the downstairs neighbor. I mean with all the walking and noise we have to be making right. Well I did fail to say, this neighbor is a music major. Yes, I believe she knows how to play every instrument too. I only think this, because everyday we have to indure her squeeking and honking of the flute and saxophone. At this point of the day, we usually turn the TV on as loud as possible, but sometimes this doesn't help when she has friends over, then they've got an orchistra going. They're impossible.

But yet that's not all. Since in france most buildings are built right next to each other, we also have to include our neighbors in the buildings right beside us. Well on the one side there is a building with what I think are only gay guys. But not just that, but they all have dogs. The worst are the couple down on the first floor. I know when its time to walk their dogs, cause I hear yelling and screaming (at the dogs). I do have to say I've learned a good amount of french this way. Doucement! Vien ici! restez la! (CALM DOWN! COME HERE, STAY THERE!) So just incase Celine gets out of control, I know what to say. Just Kidding.

But for the other building, our neighbor has something going on but we're not sure. We think maybe he grows a sells drugs. It used to be a gay bar until the cops closed it down. Now these weird guys live there. They have a camera in their door, which you can't see into (the door). And then through out the day people come and go. And he's always there, I don't think he works. But then he also listens to his music really really loud. I mean it starts early in the morning too.
Can I please have a break. Well by now we're kinda just usued to it, and we handle it although that doesn't mean we like it. Oh well we think we will be moving out of here by the end of the year any ways. We just found out that if we're here (in this apartment) we will have to pay a tax. We're renting an apartment and we have to pay a yearly tax, does this make any since to anyone. It will probably be over 600 euros, which we don't have, so we will probably be moving back to the parents place until we head back to the states.

A day in the life of.... Well... US!

Ok so this picture really doesn't have much to do with the post. I just happen to fall onto this group and I really enjoyed it. Any who, I don't feel like I've put up a lot a posts that are actually about us, so I thought I'd talk about what's been going on recently.
Well recently Celine just had surgery. Its nothing to concerning, but surgery is surgery any way you put it. She had this birth mark, although it wasn't really that, that she was born with. She had doctors (French Doctors) look at it when she was young, but they only said to keep an eye on it and call us when it starts to spread. Well that's reassuring. Well I told Celine if she would have showed a doctor in the US they would have put her into surgery right away. So she got it checked a few months ago, and the Doctor said she should have had it removed a while ago. Well since we're under the French social security, (meaning, we go to the doctor, and they pay for it) we decided to get the surgery. She would have to get it done before she gets pregnant anyways. *NOTE: we are not pregnant and don't plan on it just yet* So now she's all in pain and has to have a nurse come in every few days and change her bandages. But the good news is she seems to be moving around a lot more easily.
Well also in recent news. We are both unofficially unemployed. Why Unofficially? I'll get back to that later. Well at the end of summer Celine quit her job, cause we wanted to take along vacation and my mom was coming to visit and we wanted to do stuff with her and then the surgery too. Well after the vacation and the mother visit. She started looking for a job. Well all I can say is that the economy sucks here. It seems like there are so many unemployed people. So she keeps looking, but nothing yet. Some times I know it gets to her to be unemployed. Its become hard on her. *She's become such an American... Work.. Work.. Work* Well as for me, I am with out employment too. Mainly because I am really horrible with the language. The first thing I heard when I got here is how hard the language is, and unlike English, one can't just move to the country where the language is spoken and learn it. Well this is true. So I can't really get employment cause I don't speak the language well enough. But luckily because I'm foreign and have not worked in France before I get some money from uncle Sam.. Or maybe its uncle jean Claude here... AKA Government. Ok now back to unofficially unemployed. I say this cause even though we are unemployed we still work, and kinda get payed for it... Sometimes! Well we started cleaning at Celine's parents restaurant. We started doing this for free since they do so much for us. But now they pay us too, so it helps. So every morning we get up at the crack of dawn and clean the restaurant. Well it actually doesn't take that long with 2 of us.

Then the rest of the day.. Celine has been doing a bit of work making things. She's really gotten into making things, either knitting or sewing. But she's trying to sell some of her stuff through a couple people. This is def. just for experience. Because the stuff she makes is incredible and takes along time to make, but she doesn't charge much if any, but she loves doing it. For me I do some work online. Which sometimes seems more of a hassle (wether having to deal with people I do work for, or dealing with trying to get people to work for.) but its usually pays enough to pay our monthly school loans. Or at least it has been, I might have to be jumping into my savings here pretty soon. *If you need or know someone that needs design work, let me know*

Other than this, I go to school for French. I've been taking a French class for a while now. Its about 9 hours a week and I'm going up to 12 hours soon. This may not seem like a lot but it is. Sometimes after class I have to crash, cause I'm just mentally worn out. Its a crazy class, because unlike a class in the US. In my class my teachers only speak French to us. So you better understand some. One of my teachers actually speaks a bit of English, but she prefers speaking French in French class of course. This is actually good, cause I feel like I'm learning a lot being forced to understand like this. And I think my teacher does very well, cause she knows how to talk to foreigners were as a lot of French people don't.

We had a few friends from the US call us at the crack of early, 6:30 am. And someone asked us what we did this weekend. They asked did we hang out with friends? What friends I said! I'll eplain. Here in France people are very attached to the friends they've had their whole life. And since Celine hasn't lived here in so long, we really don't have many friends. We used to hang out with Celines brother and wife. But they've got something against us, and the French way is not to talk about it so of course I don't know what their problem is. So now we don't hang out with them. One of celine's best friends from the past actually just moved back into town with her boy friend. So sometimes we hang out with them. But they've also got friends of their own, so like I said French people are attached to their life long friends. So we don't hang out with them much. We actually have some people that we do a lot of stuff with, the only thing is that their like 50+. They are celines parents friends, but have become our friends over the months. And although it is such a large age difference we still have fun, they are all crazy, but in a good way. So its hard to have good friends in France, your friends are usually people you've grown up with, other than that its hard to get into a circle of friends. Quite different than in the U.S. I think.

Now that I've realized what I just wrote it makes me feel like it sounds like we're not enjoying our selves. Well that's not it, we are enjoying are selfs but just lately it seems to be tough. Living here and also trying to figure out whats next. Because soon we will be heading back to the U.S. Well when I say soon, I mean like the beginning of next year, probably feb. or march. So now we have to figure that out. Its tough. Well, speaking of talking about a lot of the tough things going on, I'm thinking soon I may write about things I like and dislike about France and the French. So stay tooned, as the kids say.

Want to know when our blog site is update?

Tired of checking up on blogs sites when they are not updated. Ok well I found this helpful little tool. If your like me you have a lot of blog sites to keep up on. Which is good, but not so good when it takes forever to check each blog for an update. I have about 10 blogs I try to keep up with, because I like to know what people are up too. I understand its sometimes a hassle to get on the computer to update your blog site, but its even more of a hassle to check to see if these sites are updated. Well with this new program I found, it takes that hassle way. Well what it does in a quick note, it emails you when one of your friends blog sites has been updated. Easy huh? Because like me I check my email everyday, and now I don't have to check up on all the blog sites, unless they are updated. So if you have a blog site, I would recommend you add this to your site. And if you'd like to be informed when OUR blog site is updated just add your email to the link I put up. Its located to the right, under my ABOUT ME green profile and says "Tell me when this blog is updated". Just add your email, it will ask you to confirm your email, and that's it. Easy as pie!

Not so total eclipse

Well this morning about 11, there was a solar eclipse. It wasn't a total eclipse from where we are, but it was total over Madrid, Spain. We thought it was pretty cool though. Celine went all over town this morning, before the eclipse, to try to find some of those special glasses that lets you look directly at the sun. Well we didn't really have any luck with that. So we tried the box thing. You know, your supposed to put a small whole in a cardboard box and then it makes a kinda imitation eclipse. Well that didn't work so well. But luckily we we're able to look a bit, cause it became over casted really quick. And also using the digital camera, putting the light source, what ever that's called, really low so that we could see the sun on the screen of the camera. This way we didn't have to look directly at the sun, although we did abit. It was still pretty cool. With in a 10 minutes period it got dark and went from a blue sky to slightly over cast, and you could tell the temperature dropped quite a bit. It dropped so much you could see your breath. Well any ways, it was a pretty cool sight.