Amen to that.

Bought my train tickets to go to Paris (THEN TO BARCELONA! la gente esta muy loca!) and my ticket to go see Foster the People... Realized too late that I'd rather go see my penultimate indie-singer-angel-girl-crush Laura Marling. Tickets are not exchangable. Damn you capitalism.

Saw a massie manifestation (manif=protest today) as a bunch of people were faire greve-ing about something or another. Trop bizarre. No idea what they were protesting, but it broke up around lunchtime because the only thing more sacred than the french right to protest is having two hours for lunch. Amen.

Enjoyed my cours de danse enormously, we finally learned some new moves for the rock n roll dance. Am friends with a frenchman who became my friend because due to my lack of proper pronunciation, thought I was from South Africa for the first few times we chatted. Funny I shouldn't have picked up on that sooner. Are you befok?

Some Slang/Argot for "Child"

Môme- If you haven't heard of Edith Piaf, I recommend a trip to youtubeland. Her unearthly voice and heartbreaking songs are embedded in french culture. She got her start (early adolescence) under the stage name "La Môme Piaf." Piaf is a small bird, and a Môme is a baby/child. So her stage name was "The Baby Bird."

Gamin- Child.
Gaminerie- Playfulness, childishness.

Gosse- Child, or young adolescent. A beau gosse is a hot dude.

Mioche- Baby/kid.

Chatted with two lovely AP classes from my ancien ecole. Glad to see all of you are thriving, hope you all take gap years and have crazy adventures. Best investment of a year, and its only been three months.

What Have I Learned In These Three Months?

1) Not smoking is easy. Just tell people (and yourself) you have asthma. They will respect that.

2) Ne me drague pas. All you ever need to know. Don't hit on me. Just say no to creepy offers, and if they don't back off, pull the "I don't speak the language" card. If that doesn't work, learn how to say in fluent whatever-language "back off in no uncertain terms."

3) Eat everything. It's all an experience, and you may never have it again. If it looks weird, take a small portion. I tried apricots, peaches, pea soup, purple carrots and hot chocolate in bowls for the first time here. And mussels, foie gras, weird things I don't know the names of and eel.

4) School for your own benefit is way more fun that school for a diploma or a grade. Successfully chatting with my dancing prof means more to mean than any of my grades here.

5) Slang is awesome. So many naughty words, so little time.