It has been a long, very long time, since I have posted anything. I am surprised that my blog was not deleted from 'non-use'. I will be changing the format here soon, and will be pondering the use of this blog. It was first a way to keep in touch while I was in France for a month in '07, but recently I have been dusting off my calligraphy pens and wanting a place to post some work. We shall see if I do. Perhaps it will be another 4 years before the next post. lol :)

Last test was yesterday :)

So just a quick note... The last test was yesterday :) I got a 15 out of 20... and that is not too bad. Oddly enough 10 out of 20.. would be an F back home, but the French way of doing tests: 50% is passing... so I guess I got an A :) Tests here are not added up the same. You have will have a section worth 5 points and in that section you might have to write 10 sentences or so… Each spelling error or grammar error will take off as much as one point. Its very easy to miss 3 points out of a 5 point section, but either way I am passing with a good grade and all my homework has words like.. “Bien” or “Bon et sérieux travail! … Travailler is a verb for work… not weeping I thought some of you might find that a little humorous ;)

I am very excited because we have now covered 3 verb tenses!
1) Le futur proche (near future)
2) Le futur Simple (future)
3) L’impératif (Imperfect tense used for giving commands or suggestions. This would be my friend Kate’s favourite one especially the commanding kind LOL ha ha ha jk jk jk)

Today we are supposed to go over past tense!!! Yeah!!! I am so excited to learn these tenses. All the vocabulary we are learning with the tenses adds up to a lot!

Less that a week left of Paris! I have mixed feelings. I want to stay and I want to come home. Its going to be so fun to be back in the US again… Yeah for Wal*Mart and Kohl’s and Taco Bell lol lol ;) :):):):):):)

-Jase

The Eiffel Tower!! at night Oooo Laa Laaa :):):)

This is another controversial building, but fortunately everyone fell in love with it so now it seems to be ok. I guess they will keep it :) It was originally built to be “temporary” for a world's fair in the early 1800’s. After the fair… people began to wonder "um… why is that ugly contraption still up??? It’s wrecking my view and my property value!!!! Alors!!!"… Well… those days are over… These days, views of this tower will increase your property value! I am sure they don't mind :) except at tax time when they pay taxes on the value of what they own... oh well you can't have it all... As some have found out you can't have your cake and eat it too... "let them eat cake or let them pay taxes!!! (just kidding)

At night they light her up.. and every hour on the hour she sparkles for about 10 minutes… its very cool. The top of the tower has some search lights that turn all while it sparkles. The beams are parallel to the ground she is fun to watch :)

Good night … its getting late over here and I have to study.. hope you enjoy the posts… miss you all and hope to see you in a little over a week

The controversial National Library of France…

This complex is made of 4 towers that resemble open books. The complex houses one of the largest collection of historical documents of its kind. Where does the "controversy" come from???? Well the monster cost several billion Euros… that some cash people! The 2nd “controversy” people really don’t care for how it looks and well in my opinion its ok, but for the fashion conscious Parisians it not really good enough!… 3rd “controversy” the sun is not good for historical documents (come on I could have told them that!!) the architect was somehow not aware of this neither were the people that approved the plans. An extensive shutter system was build later to protect the collections from the sun (extra cost so glad it was not my tax money lol). They now give the buildings a golden glow from the natural wood that the shutters are made from… 4th “Controversy” at the base of the building there is a complex to study.. It’s a huge place that connects the 4 towers. What could be bad about that?? well…. it’s kind of too close to the River… It floods sometimes… nice huh?

Le Arche de Triomphe

Time flew when we were at this monument. It is a very classic sight of Paris. The first photo is on top of the monument. The last photo is on the way home trying to figure out what train to transfer to so that we can get home without being harmed by the crazies :)

Napoléon commissioned this to be built so that when he came home from his various wars he could have a parade. If I have the history correct he never saw the completion of this building in his life time, but when they brought his body to Paris he passed through this arch in the parade that he always wanted, too bad he did not see it. It is very flattering to his image to say the least. On of the sides depicts him as a roman looking emperor bringing “freedom” to the masses. The ironic part of it is that he was bringing his rule to Europe he was not really setting any one free….

Lion looking back at Luxemburg

These gardens are very nice.

In front of the Grand Mansion de Luxemburg there is a pond where you can rent a miniature boat and sail it. :) There are many little youngsters that do this nearly everyday except on rainy days.

Ha Ha Ha

I thought some of you might find this kinda funny!! :):):):)
I took this picture in the Latin Quarter. It is an area with a very live night life. It is the "Intellectual Quarter" of the city, so that makes these books in a store window especially ironic! :)

Versailles encore!

Versailles again!

I had to come back when I was given the opportunity I truly love this place! This time we went to the gardens and la mansion de Marie Antoinette. It was such a nice day!!

The North and the South! :)

I went to the most northern part of the City today. If you make it to Paris, just to let you know, the best neighborhoods in Paris are the southern parts. They are the best. When you go north the city becomes just a busy somewhat dirty place that you might want to not visit when it’s dark. There is less to see, and the attractive sights are farther and fewer between. Even the people change. As you ride the metro the kinds of people riding the metro change, as you journey from stop to stop the cleaner, better dressed, people start leaving the train and stop by stop people who are not quite as clean looking get on the train. There are still some nice friendly looking people. They are not really all that gruff, but you can tell that the attitude changes and people don’t have as much to spend on clothes. The traffic is also thicker. There are more cars moving a lot faster and the trains have more people on them. Just life in general is different in the north. The richer people stay in the south, and the streets are not as busy, and the walks are a bit nicer. Defiantly buy your vacation property in the southern part of Paris!!!!.. You will pay more, but it will be worth it! :)

:)
Jase

Crazies dans la Paris (Crazies in the city) :)

Soooo anyways… Not too much to be excited about today… I went to class learned a lot came home and took a nap.. I was (past tense) a little sleepy… I think though that all my friends are sleeping… so… I wont get any emails from them until later… but I did write some really long ones and those tend to take a while for responding… its not that my friends are slow readers its just that they like to write back with appropriate responses.. At least that is what I keep telling myself. Maybe they are just slow readers… (hee hee)

I did witness some oddities toady: the first one is a bit simple and not that extraordinary. A man with a little lack of hygiene tried to talk to us today. (Crazies are easy to find on the streets) He tried his best to get us to talk to him and then said with a very puzzled look on his face… “Are you Irish?”... We just kept going. I feel so out of place ignoring people but it is best not to talk to a crazy… My funniest memory so far of a crazy was: the other day going home a little later than usual. We saw a man at a metro stop (not the same man of course) He was very dirty, with long dirty hair and a dirty hat… He walked in a very odd fashion. He walks up to a vending machine leans himself on it like he needed it to hold him up and then he laughs hysterically. His laugh was remarkably convincing, like someone had just told him the best joke of his life! Then just as suddenly as he started the laugh, he quit. I could not see his face. It was underneath the hair/hat fashion statement he was making… It was like he totally forgot what he was laughing about. All of us at the Metro stop eased away from him. Not moving to quickly, but really wanting to have some safer distance from the man. Then he remembered what he was laughing about and laughed again. He must have repeated the action about 3 times before the train arrived to take us away. The second oddity I saw today besides the “are you Irish?” man was a, I will call him the “fire man”. This older man looking totally sane had made a little fire in the metro. I don’t think he was trying to get warm. He was really just trying to burn up an official looking document. He would pick it up and move it so it was burned up as much as possible. After the paper was no longer readable and almost reduced to ash he stomped it out and went on his way. For the life of me I cannot think what it was the he burned. Maybe it was a bill that he could not pay and did not want anyone to see any information on it like is address or something. I just thought it was totally odd…

Type to you later,
Jase